Sr. Director, Strategic Customer Solutions CPO - Santa Clara, CA, United States
Originally posted 14 July 2026 by the employer.
About the role
The Sr. Director of Strategic Customer Solutions CPO operates at the intersection of technology, product strategy, customer engagement, and business development to guide strategy in Co-Packaged Optics (CPO), optical components, and AI networking technologies. Reporting to the EVP and General Manager of the Optical Components Business Group and working closely with the CTO, this role serves as the central coordinator for cross-company CPO initiatives and strategic engagements with hyperscalers and ecosystem partners.
What you'll do
- Support the development and execution of the corporate CPO strategy across multiple business groups involved in CPO and optical interconnect technologies. - Engage directly with hyperscalers, switch vendors, networking companies, and ecosystem partners to align customer architectures and roadmaps with internal product development. - Identify portfolio gaps, technology opportunities, and strategic investment areas across optical interconnects and AI networking architectures. - Translate customer requirements into technical solution selling, strategic communications, and executive presentations. - Facilitate cross-selling opportunities across business groups and evaluate emerging market opportunities and business models. - Support industry engagement, technical conference participation, and competitive intelligence monitoring covering emerging startup activity and market trends.
What you'll need
- BS, MS, or PhD in Electrical Engineering, Physics, Optical Engineering, or a related field. - 10+ years of experience in optical communications, datacenter networking, semiconductors, or related industries. - Strong understanding of optical interconnect technologies, transceivers, silicon photonics, CPO, or networking architectures. - Experience working directly with strategic customers and technology partners on technical solution definition. - Demonstrated ability to influence across organizations without direct authority. - Strong communication and presentation skills across technical, commercial, and executive audiences.
Nice to have
- Experience with hyperscale datacenter architectures and AI networking. - Familiarity with silicon photonics, optical packaging, fiber optics, or optical components. - Experience in product management, strategic marketing, business development, or technology strategy. - Existing relationships within the datacenter, networking, or AI ecosystem.
Skills: Co-Packaged Optics, CPO, optical interconnect, silicon photonics, AI networking
This role has been open 98 days — well above the 76-day median for Optical/Photonics IC Design roles.
Optical/Photonics IC Design · Photonics
|
Open roles in category
132
|
Median days open
76 d
|
Median salary
$195k
|
See the full market breakdown ▾Category comparison, skills in demand, and who else is hiring
| Metric | Coherent Corp | All employers we track in this specialty (132 roles · 29 employers) |
|---|---|---|
| Open roles in this specialty | 17 | 132 |
| Median days open | 91 d | 76 d (+15 d vs this employer) |
| Median salary (USD postings) | — | $195k |
Skills observed across this category: Co-Packaged Optics, CPO, optical interconnect, silicon photonics, AI networking
Who's hiring in this category
- Coherent Corp (this employer) · 17 open roles · median 90 d
- GlobalFoundries · 16 open roles · median 76 d
- Lightmatter · 13 open roles · median 95 d
- Lumentum · 10 open roles · median 77 d
- Marvell Technology · 8 open roles · median 42 d
- Intel Corporation · 7 open roles · median 60 d
How we counted: 132 open Optical/Photonics IC Design (Photonics) roles from 29 employers tracked in the SemiconductorJobs index, counted 20 Oct 2026. Specialty figures count only roles carrying this exact specialty label, so an employer's related work in neighbouring specialties is not included there. Figures refresh nightly.