Senior Photonic Design Engineer (Integrated Photonics)

Location: Washington, D.C.–Baltimore area, United States

Salary: $150,000–$220,000 per year

Company

A well-funded photonics startup developing heterogeneous photonics platforms and optical microsystems for communications, sensing, defense, and quantum applications.

What you will do

• Design, simulate, lay out, and tape out photonic integrated circuits and subsystems.
• Develop and optimize active and passive photonic devices for optical systems.
• Characterize and test fabricated photonic devices and circuits, then analyze measurement data.
• Collaborate with foundries, packaging vendors, and cross-functional engineering teams to deliver hardware.
• Develop scalable workflows for PIC design, simulation, characterization, and automation.
• Lead technical efforts and contribute to product roadmaps and R&D initiatives.

Requirements

• M.S. or Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering, Physics, Photonics, Optics, or a related STEM field.
• 3–10 years of experience designing and developing photonic integrated circuits.
• Experience owning PIC designs through layout, tapeout, fabrication, and characterization.
• Hands-on experience with photonic device testing, measurement, and data analysis.
• Experience with photonic simulation tools such as Lumerical, FDTD, MODE, CHARGE, or Interconnect.
• Must be a US Citizen or Green Card holder.

Nice to have

• Experience with silicon photonic devices, commercial foundries, PDKs, design rule checks, and tapeout workflows.
• Proficiency with KLayout, GDSFactory, Cadence Virtuoso, or similar PIC layout tools.
• Experience automating measurements and testing with Python or MATLAB.
• Experience with RF characterization, photonic packaging, fiber attach, flip-chip integration, or PIC-to-electronics integration.

Culture & Benefits

• Work with engineers and scientists developing next-generation optical technologies.
• Contribute to products spanning communications, sensing, defense, and quantum applications.
• Operate independently in a fast-paced engineering environment while solving complex real-world challenges.