Silicon Photonics Engineer (AI)

Location: Full-time onsite position in Austin, TX or Sunnyvale, CA

Salary: $230K–$280K annually, plus equity opportunities.

Company

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

What you will do

• Lead high-speed silicon photonics development for modulators on the OPU platform, including the T100 optical AI inference chip.
• Design and optimize carrier-depletion Mach-Zehnder, micro-ring/micro-disk, and traveling-wave modulators for bandwidth, VπL, insertion loss, extinction ratio, and energy per bit.
• Lead photonic layout, foundry PDK tapeout, DRC/LVS sign-off, and design-for-test structures.
• Define RF electrode, termination, and driver-interface requirements with electronic IC and packaging teams.
• Support wafer- and die-level characterization, including EO S-parameters, eye diagrams, BER, and DC/thermal tuning, and correlate results with models.
• Research advanced modulator architectures and document specifications, tapeout reviews, test reports, and technical trade-offs.

Requirements

• PhD in Electrical Engineering, Applied Physics, Physics, or a relevant field.
• At least 3 years of relevant experience in high-speed silicon photonics, specifically high-speed modulator design.
• Hands-on experience with photonic device simulation tools such as Lumerical/Ansys, COMSOL, or equivalent, plus RF/electromagnetic simulation of traveling-wave electrodes.
• Experience creating photonic layouts and taping out in a silicon photonics foundry PDK using tools such as KLayout, gdsfactory, Cadence Virtuoso, or equivalent.
• Working knowledge of VNAs, high-speed oscilloscopes, BERTs, RF probe stations, and other high-speed characterization methods.
• Solid understanding of plasma dispersion, PN/PIN junction design, and the trade-offs among modulator speed, loss, and drive voltage.

Nice to have

• 5+ years of experience in high-speed silicon photonics.
• Experience taking devices through the complete design-to-tapeout-to-fabrication-to-testing cycle.
• Experience with advanced EO modulator platforms, including thin-film lithium niobate, BTO, or III-V/Si heterogeneous integration.
• Experience co-designing modulators with CMOS/SiGe drivers or with high-speed RF packaging and photonic-electronic co-integration.

Culture & Benefits

• Collaborative environment working at the intersection of photonics and AI hardware.
• Health plan premiums fully covered for employees and dependents, with HSA contributions.
• Unlimited PTO.
• 401(k) matching and stock option opportunities.
• Dental, vision, life, hospital, critical illness, accident, and other voluntary benefits, with personalized plan options.