Optical / Optoelectronic Test Engineer (Photonic Computing)

Location: Berkeley, California, United States; onsite

Salary: Up to $240,000 base annually

Company

Early-stage photonic computing company developing an integrated optical-electronic platform for AI workloads, combining photonic compute, electronic ICs, packaging, and system architecture.

What you will do

• Develop characterization strategies for optical and optoelectronic devices, connecting measurements to device performance and system requirements.
• Build measurement infrastructure from scratch, including physical setups, instrument selection, station interfaces, calibration, and reference methods.
• Run measurements, interpret results, and investigate unexpected behaviour.
• Diagnose performance limits and failure mechanisms to inform device design, packaging, test methods, and operating conditions.
• Build repeatable manual and automated test workflows to improve measurement consistency, analysis, and throughput.
• Collaborate with device, design, and packaging engineers and extend characterization to temperature-dependent behaviour, reliability, and module or subsystem performance.

Requirements

• Hands-on characterization experience with photonic integrated circuits or relevant optical and optoelectronic devices.
• Personal ownership of measurement strategy, physical setup, instrument selection, calibration or reference methods, and interpretation of device results.
• Strong device fundamentals and the ability to explain how design choices and fabrication affect measured behaviour.

Nice to have

• Direct photonic integrated circuit experience.
• Background in free-space optics, optical communications, transceivers, fiber optics, semiconductor lasers, or photodetectors.

Culture & Benefits

• Broad ownership of measurement infrastructure and the conclusions drawn from test results.
• Close collaboration with engineers developing photonic computing technology, electronics, and packaging.
• Opportunity to establish how a new photonic computing platform is measured, understood, and improved.
• 401(k), medical insurance, vision insurance, and dental insurance.