Senior Optical System Engineer

Job Description

We are seeking a highly skilled and motivated Senior Optical System Engineer to join our hardware engineering team focused on next‑generation AI/data‑center optical interconnect technologies. In this role, you will lead the design, development, validation, qualification, and optimization of advanced optical sub‑systems including silicon photonics PICs, optical engines, high‑speed DSP‑based optical links, and 1.6T/3.2T optical interconnects.

The ideal candidate will have strong expertise in optical systems, CPO/OCI architectures, system‑level interoperability, high‑speed optical/electrical characterization, automated test development, and optical system qualification. This role requires close collaboration with photonics, DSP/ASIC, SI/PI, packaging, firmware, and manufacturing teams to support the development and production ramp of scalable, high‑performance, and power‑efficient optical interconnect solutions for hyperscale AI infrastructure.

Key Responsibilities:

• Lead system‑level design validation and qualification of advanced optical interconnect products including 1.6T/3.2T optical interconnect, silicon photonics PICs, optical engines, DSP‑based optical links, and CPO/OCI systems.
• Develop and execute comprehensive validation plans for optical modules, high‑speed electrical and optical interfaces, switch‑level interoperability, and rack‑level system qualification.
• Characterize and optimize key optical and electrical performance metrics including BER, TDECQ, jitter, OSNR, extinction ratio, receiver sensitivity, eye quality, link margin, and power efficiency.
• Perform module‑level, simulation‑level, and system‑level qualification testing for IMDD and coherent optical systems.
• Lead high‑speed optical and electrical debug activities for PAM4 links operating at 200G/lane, 400G/lane, and beyond.
• Develop, automate, and maintain optical/electrical test stations using Python, MATLAB, LabVIEW, and database‑driven analytics tools.
• Collaborate closely with photonics, DSP/ASIC, SI/PI, packaging, firmware, manufacturing, and system architecture teams to optimize overall system performance and manufacturability.
• Support optical architecture development for AI clusters, XPO/LPO/LRO systems, co‑packaged optics, optical switching systems, and optical compute fabrics.
• Contribute to industry standards activities including IEEE 802.3, OIF, CMIS, and MSA specifications.
• Analyze test results and generate detailed technical reports to support design reviews, customer qualification, and production deployment.

• Bachelor’s degree in Optical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Physics, or a closely related field.
• Minimum 5 years of hands‑on experience in optical system validation, optical transceiver qualification, or optical subsystem testing.
• Strong experience with silicon photonics PICs, optical transceivers, optical engines, high‑speed DSP‑based links, CPO/OCI architectures, LPO/LRO/XPO optical systems, and AI/data‑center optical interconnect architectures.
• Direct experience with 400G, 800G, and 1.6T optical systems, PAM4 modulation, high‑speed Rx/Tx characterization, switch‑level interoperability testing, firmware and EEPROM validation, BER/TDECQ/RIN measurements, receiver sensitivity testing, and wafer‑level optical characterization.
• Strong familiarity with optical communication principles including NRZ/PAM4 modulation, dispersion, OSNR, jitter, equalization, signal integrity, and power integrity concepts.
• Proficiency with optical and electrical lab instrumentation including BERTs, DCAs, high‑speed oscilloscopes, OSAs, tunable lasers, VOAs, network analyzers, high‑speed probes and fixtures, and optical power meters.
• Strong experience with test automation and scripting using Python, MATLAB, and LabVIEW, along with familiarity with database‑driven analytics and regression automation frameworks.
• Familiarity with optical and RF simulation tools such as Lumerical, HFSS, ADS, COMSOL, VPI, and Zemax.
• Strong understanding of IEEE 802.3 standards, QSFP‑DD/OSFP modules, CMIS, optical module architectures, equalization techniques including CTLE, DFE, and FIR, as well as optical packaging and thermal…