Senior Photonics Application Engineer

Are you the engineer customers want on the call when they ask whether a TFLN PIC can meet their system requirements? At Lightium, we’re pioneering next-generation photonic integrated circuits (PICs) built on thin-film lithium niobate (TFLN), and we’re looking for a Senior Photonics Application Engineer to be the technical face of Lightium from a customer’s first inquiry to the day their design is onboarded and ready for tape-out.

You will shape how every new customer experiences Lightium.

In this role, you’ll join our Commercial Team, reporting to the CRO, and own the pre-sales customer journey: first contact, technical qualification, feasibility assessment, quotation, purchase order, and onboarding. You will turn customer requirements into a credible technical scope, position the right path (MPW, dedicated lot, or production) on our mature O-band and C-band PDK, and make sure each customer starts with a design flow, design rules, and expectations that set them up to succeed.

Your work is the bridge between what our customers need and what our R&D and operations teams can deliver. You know what a customer looks for in a foundry because you have been that customer: you have taken designs to tape-out on external PDKs and seen what separates a foundry you can build a product on from one you can’t.

Pre-Sales Technical Ownership:
Act as the first technical contact for inbound and outbound opportunities across telecom, datacom, quantum, defense, AI, and health, from R&D labs to OEMs and hyperscalers. Qualify requirements against our platform (modulator bandwidth, drive voltage, waveguide loss, wavelength band), assess feasibility, and tell customers early and honestly when a requirement does not fit. Own the technical side of every opportunity until the PO is signed.

Technical Scope & Quotation:
Define the technical scope of each quotation together with Operations and Sales, covering process, test, known good die (KGD) requirements, and packaging options. Make sure each PO matches the quoted technical scope before it enters production.

Documentation:
Record technical requirements, decisions, and customer commitments in the CRM in a form that the Sales team can pick up without asking you.

Customer Onboarding & Design Enablement:
Run structured onboarding for every new customer: kick-off, PDK delivery and design-flow setup, training sessions, and regular design office hours. Review customer designs and layouts before submission, run design rule checks (DRC), and advise on optimizing performance, test structures, and compatibility with Lightium’s PDK, characterization, and packaging standards, so designs go to the fab clean the first time.

Voice of the Customer:
Bring structured customer feedback into R&D and product decisions: PDK gaps, design rule questions, requested components, and packaging needs. Turn recurring questions into reusable assets (design guides, FAQs, onboarding material, webinar content) in collaboration with our Marketing & Communication Lead.

Industry & Customer Presence:
Represent Lightium’s technical credibility at trade shows, conferences, and customer visits. This position requires regular international travel and some meetings outside standard European office hours to reach customers in other time zones.

Educational Background: A PhD or Master’s degree in Photonics, Electrical Engineering, Physics, or a related field.

Experience:

5+ years of industry experience in integrated photonics design, applications engineering, or a technical customer-facing role in SiPh, SiN, InP, or TFLN, with a track record of supporting external customers through design and fabrication. You know what a customer expects from a foundry: PDK…