Sr. Staff Engineer, Photonic Device Design

Sr. Staff Engineer, Active Photonic Device Design

Location:

San Jose (on-site)

As an Active Photonic Device Design Engineer, you will push the envelope of bandwidth density, energy efficiency, and manufacturability of our silicon photonics optical I/O platform, removing the bottlenecks limiting next‑generation AI and advanced compute architectures.

• Design the high‑speed active photonic components needed for an aggressive optical I/O product roadmap
• Analyze test data to enable device performance and product yield
• Define and validate compact models; utilize and extend system link‑model for device optimization
• Define PIC requirements in collaboration with experts in laser, packaging, firmware, and circuits to ensure product success
• Move the ecosystem forward: understand and drive efforts at foundry and OSAT partners to overcome process limitations

• PhD degree in Optical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, or a related field
• 8+ years (research and commercial) experience developing electro‑optic systems
• Excellent programming skills; proficiency with Python, experience writing well‑structured code and developing a code base as part of a team
• Deep understanding of high‑speed photonic devices: photodetectors, electro‑optic modulators, micro‑ring resonators
• Experienced with simulation and design tools for passive and active optical devices (e.g., FDTD, charge transport)
• Experience with high‑speed design and analysis of RF tests

• Experience taking an opto‑electronic product to market: design, debug and validation
• Experience with statistical analysis of test data, DOE methods
  
  Experience with Design Validation Testing and handoff to manufacturing
• Familiarity with optical transceiver principles, transmission formats, and industry trends; experience working with cross‑functional teams (software, hardware, optical, packaging)
• Experience developing communications links at 100
  
  Gbaud or above

Salary range: $160,000 - $223,000

Note To Recruiters
:
Principals only. We are not accepting resumes from recruiters for this position. Remuneration for recruiting activities is only applicable subject to a signed and executed agreement between the parties. Please don’t send candidates to Ayar Labs, and do not contact our managers.

At Ayar Labs we’re about to revolutionize computing by moving data with light. We’re unleashing processing power for artificial intelligence, high performance computing, cloud and telecommunications by removing the bottlenecks created by today’s electrical I/O – making it possible to continue scaling computing system performance. Ayar Labs is the first to deliver an optical I/O solution that combines in‑package optical I/O chiplets and multi‑wavelength remote light sources to replace traditional electrical I/O.

This silicon photonics‑based I/O solution enables chips to communicate with each other from millimeters to kilometers, to deliver orders of magnitude improvements in latency, bandwidth density, and power consumption.

With our strong collaborations with industry leaders and government, our deep ties to MIT and UC Berkeley, and our commitment to hiring the best engineers in photonics and electronics, joining our team gives you the opportunity to collaborate with renowned experts on challenging, paradigm‑shifting work.

We are passionate about delivering in‑package optical I/O at scale, leveraging the strength of our patent portfolio and our team of leading interdisciplinary experts. We believe that deep cross‑collaboration between teams facilitated by honest, open debate is the best way to drive innovation and achieve big wins. Join our team and experience the possibilities.

Ayar Labs is an affirmative action/equal opportunity employer and is strongly committed to all policies which will afford equal opportunity employment to all qualified persons without regard to age, sex, national origin, race, color, ethnicity, creed, religion, gender identity, sexual orientation, disability, veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law. It is the policy of Ayar Labs to provide reasonable accommodation when requested by a qualified applicant or employee with a disability, unless such accommodation would cause an undue hardship.

Veterans are more than welcome and encouraged to apply.