Optical Engineer – Optical Interconnect & Optical Communications

About OLIX

AI is growing faster than any technology in history and the explosion in demand has created a massive infrastructure gap; we can no longer build chips or power stations fast enough to keep up. The industry is still leaning on a ten-year-old hardware blueprint that has reached its limit. A new paradigm that is faster and more efficient will be the biggest economic opportunity of the next century and create the most important company of the next decade.

OLIX is building this next paradigm; the Optical Tensor Processing Unit (OTPU) achieves performance and energy efficiency that is impossible to match from existing chips.

OLIX is developing next-generation optical interconnect architectures for AI data centers, including chip-to-chip, inter-tray, intra-tray, and rack-to-rack optical links. We are seeking Principal and Staff Optical Interconnect Engineers with deep experience in optical communications and co-packaged optics (CPO) to help design and deliver scalable, high-bandwidth interconnect systems. The candidate will be joining a dynamic fast paced team here intent on breaking all the rules and old paradigms.

This optics role sits at the intersection of optics, ASICs, high-speed electronics, packaging, and algorithms. You will work on tightly integrated electro-optic systems optimized for bandwidth density, ultra-low latency, power efficiency, thermal performance, reliability, and high-volume manufacturability. We are looking for an optical engineer who is equally comfortable discussing link budgets and Maxwell’s equations and physically aligning fiber arrays. Someone who moves fluidly between simulation, lab validation, and manufacturing constraints.

A builder who enjoys solving real implementation problems, and not just designing on paper. A technical leader who stays close to the details.

We are hiring at both Senior and Staff levels as we build a world-class optical systems team.

• Define high-bandwidth optical interconnect systems spanning 1. In-tray (chip-to-chip), 2. Intra-tray, and 3. Rack-to-rack links.
• Contribute to co-packaged optics (CPO) architectures integrating photonics intimately to high-performance ASICs for optimized latency and connectivity.
• Develop scalable link strategies across fiber, integrated wave guides, and planar-light-wave circuits (PLC)
• Own system-level link budgets including insertion loss, coupling loss, bandwidth, BER, power, and thermal margins and requirements for lasers and receivers.
• Balance bandwidth density, power consumption, reliability, and serviceability constraints.

• Collaborate closely with opto-mechanical, ASIC, mixed-signal, RF, and DSP teams on electro-optic interface definitions
• Participate in co-optimization of Modulation formats, Equalization strategies, Laser integration approaches, Driver and Receiver architectures
• Contribute to system modeling across high-speed VCSELs, optics, detectors, electrical channels, packaging, and signal processing layers
• Analyze trade-offs between optical reach, power budget, and electronic complexity
• Familiar with state-of-the art rapid optical prototyping tools, especially as it pertains to PLCs and micro-optics.

• Design and optimize high-density fiber-optic interconnects
• Develop and analyze integrated waveguide-based links
• Design Planar Lightwave Circuits (PLC) for routing, splitting, tapping, multiplexing, in/out coupling, and signal distribution.
• Optimize fiber-to-waveguide and fiber-to-package coupling strategies for both multimode and single mode wave guides.
• Address packaging constraints including alignment tolerances and connector strategies

• Contribute to on-package and near-package photonic integration strategies
• Evaluate thermal interactions between ASICs and photonic devices
• Address serviceability, repairability, and field-replaceability trade-offs in CPO architectures
• Drive tolerance and reliability analysis for high-density optical packaging
• Partner with mechanical and thermal teams to ensure robust system integration