Systems Engineer (Photonics)

Location: Austin, Texas, United States; full-time onsite position

Salary: $245,000–$285,000 per year, plus equity opportunities.

Company

hirify.global is an AI hardware startup developing silicon photonics and programmable metasurface technology for energy-efficient, high-performance AI inference.

What you will do

• Own the architecture of the high-speed communication and signal-processing path connecting digital data streams with optical signals across transmit and receive systems.
• Build and maintain end-to-end optical and electrical link and power budgets aligned with hardware designs and measurements.
• Develop behavioral models for the complete TX–channel–RX path, including optical, analog, quantization, and algorithmic effects.
• Allocate accuracy, noise, signal-to-noise, throughput, latency, and power targets across system components and architectural options.
• Run Monte Carlo, corner, and time-domain simulations to quantify design margins and manufacturing robustness.
• Correlate models with laboratory and silicon measurements, refine discrepancies, and collaborate with analog, photonic, digital, and software engineers.

Requirements

• MS or PhD in Electrical Engineering, Applied Physics, or a related field focused on communication theory, signal processing, or mixed-signal systems.
• 7+ years of experience in communication systems architecture, link-budget modeling, signal-chain modeling, or optical/high-speed electrical communication performance modeling.
• Deep knowledge of modulation, equalization, synchronization, estimation, quantization effects, and coding-gain concepts.
• Expert proficiency in Python with NumPy/SciPy and/or MATLAB/Simulink for behavioral modeling and statistical or time-domain analysis.
• Experience with optical or high-speed electrical link budgets and impairment allocation, plus excellent written and verbal communication.
• Ability to work full-time onsite in Austin, Texas.

Nice to have

• Experience with coherent or direct-detection architectures, SerDes, Ethernet, PCIe, or OIF-CEI standards.
• System-level modeling of ADC/DACs, including quantization, sampling, and multi-device synchronization.
• Familiarity with Cadence Virtuoso, Spectre, photonic integrated circuits, silicon photonics, or optical transceiver systems.
• Hands-on laboratory characterization, silicon or system bring-up, and experience carrying architectures across multiple product generations.

Culture & Benefits

• Collaborative startup environment focused on photonics, AI hardware, and computational efficiency.
• 100% coverage of base health plan premiums for employees and dependents, plus HSA contributions.
• Unlimited paid time off.
• 401(k) matching and stock option opportunities.
• Dental, vision, life, hospital, critical illness, accident, and customizable voluntary benefits.