Sr. Staff Engineer, Photonics Design

Sr Staff Engineer, Photonics Design

Location:

San Jose (on‑site)

Ayar Labs is shattering AI data bottlenecks by moving data at the speed of light. As pioneers of co‑packaged optics (CPO), we are using light instead of electricity to move data faster, further, and with a fraction of the energy needed to fuel the explosive growth of AI models. Backed by industry giants like NVIDIA, AMD and Intel and manufactured in partnership with the world’s leading semiconductor ecosystem, Ayar Labs’ co‑packaged optics solution is key to unleashing next‑generation AI scale‑up architectures.

As a photonics 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. You will help define our product roadmap and drive development to meet aggressive customer requirements.

• Design the high‑performance integrated photonic components needed for an aggressive optical I/O product roadmap
• Drive efforts at foundry and OSAT partners to overcome process limitations
• Build data infrastructure: formulate and extend custom code base for layout, analysis, and automated checking
• Enable next‑generation architectures: target device‑roadmap goals needed for high‑impact product features
• Drive PIC to meet system requirements in collaboration with experts in laser, packaging, firmware, and circuits to ensure product success

• PhD degree in Optical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, or a related field
• 6+ years (research and commercial) experience developing electro‑optic systems
• Great programming skills; proficiency with Python, experience writing well‑structured code and developing a code base as part of a team
• Experience with Design Validation Testing and handoff to manufacturing
• Solid understanding of photonic devices: couplers, photodetectors, electro‑optic modulators, micro‑ring resonators, gratings
• Experienced with simulation and design tools for passive and active optical devices (e.g., FDTD, charge transport)
• Experience successfully taking an opto‑electronic product to market: design, debug and validation

• Experience with high‑speed design and analysis of RF tests
• Understanding of industry’s transition to co‑packaged optics: drivers, pain points, and product differentiators
• Experience with statistical analysis of test data, DOE methods
• Familiar with electro‑optic reliability modeling and testing
• Hands‑on experience with fiber optic test and electro‑optic instruments: e.g., bit‑error‑rate testing, wafer‑screening tests

Salary range: $170,000 - $223,000

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.

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.