Sr Staff/Principal Laser Design Engineer - Boston, MA

Originally posted 11 September 2026 by the employer — open 8 days.

About the role

This role involves owning the design of high-power laser epitaxy and laser devices for Lightmatter's integrated and highly scalable laser solutions for AI communications and computation.

What you'll do

• Own the design of high-power laser epitaxial structures and laser devices, including DFB, DBR, and external-cavity architectures.
• Design epitaxial layer stacks in III-V material systems, optimizing for optical gain, carrier confinement, threshold current density, wall-plug efficiency, and high-temperature performance.
• Optimize laser cavity designs to achieve target output power, precise wavelength control, narrow linewidth, high side-mode suppression ratio (SMSR), low relative intensity noise (RIN), and robust back-reflection tolerance.
• Use physics-based and traveling-wave simulation tools to model heterostructure and cavity behavior, spectral response, and tuning.
• Partner with the characterization team to define test beds and map measured L-I-V curves, near-/far-field profiles, thermal coefficients, and linewidth back to design parameters.
• Work with epitaxy and foundry vendors to specify, qualify, and transfer designs into volume manufacturing.

What you'll need

• Ph.D. in Photonics, Electrical Engineering, Applied Physics, Materials Science, or a related discipline with at least 5 years of relevant post-degree experience; or an M.S. with at least 8 years of relevant experience; or equivalent experience.
• Deep, hands-on expertise in semiconductor laser and epitaxy design for III-V compound semiconductor devices.
• Proven track record designing DFB, DBR, and/or external-cavity lasers.
• Strong grounding in laser physics and semiconductor device physics (optical gain, threshold, slope efficiency, RIN, linewidth, thermal rollover, and back-reflection behavior).
• Proficiency with physics-based laser and photonic device simulation tools (e.g., PhotonDesign Harold/PICWave, VPIphotonics, Lumerical, or equivalent) and data analysis in Python.
• Demonstrated ability to independently own complex designs spanning multiple programs and resolve critical, ambiguous technical issues as a recognized subject-matter expert.
• Track record of close collaboration with characterization/test teams and cross-functional hardware teams.

Nice to have

• Experience with silicon photonics and heterogeneous integration of III-V gain material on silicon.
• Experience designing semiconductor optical amplifiers (SOAs).
• Experience with high power semiconductor lasers for datacom applications.
• Experience maturing a laser product from prototype through high-volume manufacturing, including epi growth and reliability qualification.
• A record of publishing novel photonics results and engaging with the broader optics community.

Skills: semiconductor laser, epitaxy design, III-V, DFB, DBR, device physics