Staff / Sr. Staff Photonics Test Engineer - Mountain View, CA, United States
$216,000 - $256,000 USD yearly
Originally posted 24 April 2026 by the employer.
About the role
This role focuses on architecting wafer, package, and system-level characterization and test strategies for Lightmatter's Silicon Photonic product line.
What you'll do
- Architect test concepts, test platforms, and design-for-test rules early during the technology concept phase. - Define, develop, and set up wafer, package, and system-level tests for silicon photonics products. - Develop test software to enable test execution, data analysis, and parameter extraction using Python, C#, or other languages. - Set up and operate optical equipment including tunable lasers, power meters, polarization synthesizers, OBR/OVA, and high-speed instruments like AWG, DCA, DSO, PNA, and LCA. - Work with OSAT teams to define, validate, and refine test techniques for high-volume manufacturing. - Collaborate with architecture, design, silicon validation, and reliability teams to provide feedback for model validation and stress testing.
What you'll need
- Master’s degree in Photonics, Physics, Electrical Engineering, or a related field. - Minimum of 6+ years of experience in silicon photonics test development. - Industrial experience supporting new product introduction and volume production. - Direct experience in high-speed photonic device test and characterization of photonics components and circuits. - Experience with test system automation using Python, C#, or other languages. - Hands-on familiarity with test equipment including AWG, DCA, DSO, PNA, and LCA.
Nice to have
- PhD in Photonics, Physics, Electrical Engineering, or a related field. - 2+ years of photonic component or circuit design experience. - Exposure to system link bring-up.
Skills: silicon photonics test, wafer characterization, optical equipment, high-speed photonic device, test system automation
This role has been open 183 days — well above the 79-day median for Optical/Photonics IC Design roles.
Optical/Photonics IC Design · Photonics
|
Open roles in category
136
|
Median days open
79 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 (136 roles · 30 employers) |
|---|---|---|
| Open roles in this specialty | 14 | 136 |
| Median days open | 99 d | 79 d (+20 d vs this employer) |
| Median salary (USD postings) | — | $195k |
Skills observed across this category: silicon photonics test, wafer characterization, optical equipment, high-speed photonic device, test system automation
Who's hiring in this category
- Coherent Corp · 17 open roles · median 95 d
- GlobalFoundries · 16 open roles · median 81 d
- Lightmatter (this employer) · 14 open roles · median 100 d
- Lumentum · 10 open roles · median 82 d
- Marvell Technology · 10 open roles · median 37 d
- Intel Corporation · 7 open roles · median 65 d
How we counted: 136 open Optical/Photonics IC Design (Photonics) roles from 30 employers tracked in the SemiconductorJobs index, counted 25 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.