Photonics Fabrication and Design Engineer (Photonics)

Location: Boulder, Colorado, United States — on-site

Salary: $140,000–$180,000 base plus equity

Company

Well-funded deep-tech startup developing an integrated-photonics platform for advanced computing applications.

What you will do

• Own microfabrication and nanofabrication runs for integrated photonic and semiconductor devices.
• Develop, stabilize, and document repeatable fabrication process flows.
• Troubleshoot lithography, dry etching, deposition, and integration issues.
• Perform failure analysis and correlate process changes with device performance and yield.
• Design passive photonic components and test structures, prepare fabrication layouts, and support optical characterization.
• Contribute to design iteration, emerging integration and packaging approaches, and the transition from early devices to integrated hardware.

Requirements

• Direct experience owning cleanroom fabrication runs for integrated photonic or closely related devices.
• Hands-on experience with lithography, dry etching, deposition, and process development.
• Ability to diagnose failed runs and implement process improvements.
• Experience with passive components such as waveguides, couplers, splitters, tapers, or mode converters.
• Experience using electromagnetic simulation tools such as Lumerical or Tidy3D and layout or DRC tools such as KLayout, Luceda, or Cadence.
• Ability to work independently in a shared cleanroom environment. Strong communication and experimental documentation skills are required.

Nice to have

• Experience with SiN, silicon photonics, superconducting devices, hybrid integration, bonding, foundry transfer, PDK development, or process-of-record creation.
• Interest in broadening into photonic design and testing.

Culture & Benefits

• Hands-on ownership of fabrication and process development rather than relying exclusively on external foundries.
• Opportunity to establish foundational technical capabilities for a new photonic platform.
• Equity included with the base salary.