Sr. Engineer, Optical Test and Automation
$170,000 - $192,000 USD yearly
About the role
This role involves developing and sustaining optical test systems, analyzing measurement data, and building dashboards to support the characterization, validation, and manufacturing readiness of optical interfaces for co-packaged optics.
What you'll do
- Develop, bring up, and qualify optical test stations for fiber arrays, connectors, and packaged photonic interfaces.
- Integrate optical instruments, positioning hardware, and control software into automated measurement workflows.
- Establish and maintain calibration procedures, measurement uncertainty assessments, and gauge repeatability and reproducibility (GR&R) studies.
- Apply statistical process control (SPC) and station monitoring to identify measurement drift, troubleshoot equipment issues, and maintain test consistency.
- Automate test-data capture and integrate results with engineering databases and dashboards.
- Analyze test results and maintain dashboards to track measurement stability, summarize performance trends, and flag anomalies.
What you'll need
- BS in Optics, Physics, Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering and 2+ years of relevant industry experience.
- Experience independently developing and sustaining optical test systems, including hands-on instrument integration and hardware troubleshooting.
- Proficiency in Python or an equivalent programming environment for instrument control, test automation, and quantitative data analysis.
- Working knowledge of fiber optics, optical coupling, and optical performance measurements such as insertion loss and return loss.
- Practical experience with calibration, measurement system analysis, and statistical methods for evaluating repeatability and stability.
- Experience organizing and maintaining traceable measurement datasets and connecting test software to databases or structured data systems.
Nice to have
- Master's degree or PhD.
- Experience testing fiber-array units, optical connectors, or silicon photonic packages.
- Experience deploying or correlating test systems across multiple sites or with outsourced semiconductor assembly and test providers (OSATs).
- Familiarity with precision motion control, vision systems, and automated optical alignment.
- Experience with software version control, configuration management, and automated monitoring of test-system performance.
More semiconductor jobs: Hardware design jobs · San Jose jobs
This role has been open 51 days — slightly above the 46-day median for Hardware Systems Engineering roles.
Hardware Systems Engineering · AI ML Hardware
|
Open roles in category
1126
|
Median days open
46 d
|
Category median salary (all employers)
$150k
|
See the full market breakdown ▾Category comparison, and who else is hiring
| Metric | Ayar Labs | All employers we track in this specialty (1126 roles · 109 employers) |
|---|---|---|
| Open roles in this specialty | 12 | 1126 |
| Open roles in the wider Software, Firmware & Systems family | 24 | 6531 · 156 employers |
| Median days open | 51 d | 46 d (+5 d vs this employer) |
| Median salary (USD postings) | — | $150k |
Who's hiring in this category
- Intel Corporation · 88 open roles · median 33 d
- KLA Corporation · 66 open roles · median 59 d
- Applied Materials · 60 open roles · median 40 d
- ASML · 59 open roles · median 17 d
- NVIDIA · 58 open roles · median 74 d
- Teradyne · 58 open roles · median 51 d
How we counted: 1126 open Hardware Systems Engineering (AI ML Hardware) roles from 109 employers tracked in the SemiconductorJobs index, counted 8 Nov 2026. Specialty figures count only roles carrying this exact specialty label, so an employer's related work in neighbouring specialties is not included there — it is counted in the wider Software, Firmware & Systems family row. Figures refresh nightly.