Staff Photonics Design and Layout Engineer - Boston, MA
$175,000 - $210,000 USD yearly
Originally posted 3 August 2026 by the employer.
Lightmatter invented the world’s first 3D-stacked photonics engine, Passage™.
About the role
This role involves floorplanning, designing, and laying out block- and chip-scale photonic circuits, working closely with photonics, product, architecture, analog, digital, and packaging teams.
What you'll do
- Understand product requirements and identify optimal photonics solutions.
- Work on clean sheet design and layout of block- and system-level photonic circuits.
- Ensure seamless integration of on-chip photonics with other subsystems, collaborating with analog, digital, and packaging teams.
- Perform rigorous layout-driven photonic simulation and verification, identifying performance bottlenecks and troubleshooting issues.
- Help develop and improve photonic layout, verification, and integration flows for multiple photonic processes and foundries.
- Contribute to proprietary PDK development.
What you'll need
- MS + 10 years or PhD + 3 years of industry experience in Electrical Engineering, Physics, Photonics, or related discipline.
- Excellent understanding of fundamental concepts of silicon photonics.
- Familiarity with a wide variety of silicon photonics devices, their performance metrics, and design trade-offs.
- Proficiency with Python.
- Experience with script-based photonic circuit design and layout using GDSFactory or similar.
- Demonstrated track record of multiple photonic tapeouts.
Nice to have
- Experience with product-grade photonic tapeouts.
- Experience with foundry and custom PDKs.
- Experience with photonic and/or analog circuit design in Cadence Virtuoso.
Skills: silicon photonics, photonic circuits, GDSFactory, photonic tapeouts, PDK development
This role has been open 63 days — below 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 | Lightmatter | All employers we track in this specialty (133 roles · 33 employers) |
|---|---|---|
| Open roles in this specialty | 18 | 133 |
| Median days open | 81 d | 67 d (+14 d vs this employer) |
| Median salary (USD postings) | — | $195k |
Skills observed across this category: silicon photonics, photonic circuits, GDSFactory, photonic tapeouts, PDK development
Who's hiring in this category
- Lightmatter (this employer) · 18 open roles · median 81 d
- GlobalFoundries · 16 open roles · median 67 d
- Coherent Corp · 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.