Staff Hardware Engineer, Optics

Originally posted 8 May 2026 by the employer. Relisted by the employer on 11 November 2026.

About the role

The Staff Hardware Engineer, Optics owns the electrical design and lab bring-up of an optical module or defined subsystem within the Cloud Platform Optics team. The platform integrates silicon photonics, transmit and receive amplifiers, controller ASICs, Marvell DSPs, and embedded firmware.

What you'll do

• Translate platform requirements into schematics, component selections, and PCB layout constraints for power delivery, clocking, control interfaces, and high-speed signal paths.
• Take first silicon and boards from power-on to a working link by setting up the bench, verifying rail voltages and sequencing, checking clocks and resets, establishing register access, and debugging electrical and optical interfaces.
• Measure performance against specifications, setting pass/fail limits for metrics including rail ripple, module power, bit error rate (BER), and link margin across voltage and temperature operating conditions.
• Reproduce intermittent hardware failures, isolate root causes across hardware, firmware, and optics, and verify fixes with before-and-after bench measurements.
• Move designs into manufacturing by supporting pilot builds, correlating bench and production-test results, and handing off validated test procedures and debug documentation to NPI and manufacturing teams.

What you'll need

• Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Computer Science, or a related field with 3–5 years of relevant hardware engineering experience, or a master’s degree or PhD with 2–3 years of experience (or equivalent professional experience).
• Hands-on ownership of at least one PCB or electrical subsystem through schematic capture or layout review, first power-on, and bench validation using Cadence OrCAD, Allegro, or comparable ECAD tools.
• Experience measuring at least two board-level parameters such as rail ripple, power-sequencing timing, clock frequency or jitter, or current draw using oscilloscopes, programmable power supplies, multimeters, or logic analyzers.
• Experience debugging board-level control interfaces such as I²C, SPI, or UART using bus captures, register reads, or firmware logs.
• Demonstrated experience isolating a hardware issue from symptom to verified fix, including bench setup, original measurement, hardware or firmware modification, and post-fix validation.

Nice to have

• Hands-on bring-up or validation of optical transceivers or high-speed hardware with serial lanes operating at 25 Gb/s or faster, including eye measurements, BER testing, or 100G- or 200G-per-lane PAM4.
• Python or similar scripting experience for instrument control, register access, or automated test and data collection, along with familiarity with CMIS or optical module management.
• Experience applying signal and power integrity principles to PCB design, debugging thermal or EMI/EMC issues, or supporting optical Ethernet and data center interconnect platforms.

Skills: optical modules, AI platforms, schematics, PCB layouts, lab equipment, thermal management

More semiconductor jobs: Marvell Technology jobs · Hardware design jobs · Santa Clara jobs