Sr. Principal Photonics engineer - Santa Clara, CA, United States
Originally posted 27 July 2026 by the employer.
This role focuses on advanced light sources for silicon photonics and heterogeneous integration for active silicon photonics.
About the role
This role involves defining, evaluating, and incubating advanced photonics technology directions for optical I/O, high-performance compute, and communications infrastructure within the CTO Office. It combines technical judgment with roadmap contribution, technology scouting, project leadership, and early feasibility definition, bridging theoretical insight with practical implementation.
What you'll do
- Evaluate source architectures such as quantum-dot DFB lasers, PIC-enhanced approaches, and comb-based sources for silicon photonics.
- Explore heterogeneous integration approaches for lasers, amplifiers, pumps, modulators, and related active building blocks.
- Develop architecture options for energy-efficient optical I/O, including parallel-emitter arrays and silicon photonics.
- Assess photodiode-array and receiver-side technologies, such as SiGe PD array options.
- Develop modeling methods connecting device-level behavior with link, thermal, packaging, and system-level trade-offs.
- Contribute technical input to roadmap discussions in optical interconnect, CPO / optical I/O, AI/HPC infrastructure, and silicon photonics.
What you'll need
- Advanced degree in Physics, Electrical Engineering, Materials Science, or Photonics; Ph.D. preferred.
- 15+ years of experience in photonics, optical communications, semiconductor lasers, optoelectronic devices, data-center optical interconnect, or quantum photonics.
- Deep technical understanding of optical I/O, semiconductor photonics, III-V devices, silicon photonics, photodetectors, advanced light sources, and system-level optical-interconnect trade-offs.
- Experience translating ambiguous technical opportunities into architectures, project scope, feasibility plans, risks, milestones, and technical recommendations.
- Experience with modeling, simulation, data analysis, and technical decision support using Python, COMSOL, Lumerical, or Matlab.
- Experience coordinating cross-functional R&D work across design, process, packaging, reliability, product, and business stakeholders.
Nice to have
- Experience with technology scouting, startup evaluation, partner assessment, roadmap input, or external innovation engagement.
Skills: silicon photonics, optical I/O, heterogeneous integration, lasers, optoelectronic devices
This role has been open 70 days — slightly above the 67-day median for Optical/Photonics IC Design roles.
Optical/Photonics IC Design · Photonics
|
Open roles in category
133
|
Median days open
67 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 (133 roles · 33 employers) |
|---|---|---|
| Open roles in this specialty | 15 | 133 |
| Median days open | 76 d | 67 d (+9 d vs this employer) |
| Median salary (USD postings) | — | $195k |
Skills observed across this category: silicon photonics, optical I/O, heterogeneous integration, lasers, optoelectronic devices
Who's hiring in this category
- Lightmatter · 18 open roles · median 81 d
- GlobalFoundries · 16 open roles · median 67 d
- Coherent Corp (this employer) · 15 open roles · median 75 d
- Lumentum · 9 open roles · median 62 d
- Keysight Technologies · 7 open roles · median 31 d
- Marvell Technology · 7 open roles · median 151 d
How we counted: 133 open Optical/Photonics IC Design (Photonics) roles from 33 employers tracked in the SemiconductorJobs index, counted 5 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.