Optical Validation Engineer, Principal (Silicon Photonics)

Location: San Jose, California, United States

Salary: $160,000–$200,000 per year, depending on experience, level, and business need. The role may also be eligible for discretionary bonuses, incentives, and benefits.

Company

hirify.global provides rack-scale AI infrastructure through connectivity solutions based on CXL, Ethernet, NVLink, PCIe, UALink, and its COSMOS software suite.

What you will do

• Lead end-to-end validation and characterization of optical engines integrating electronic and photonic integrated circuits across multiple silicon photonics architectures.
• Develop test plans, methodologies, and automation frameworks for optical, electrical, and electro-optical metrics including BER, eye diagrams, insertion loss, extinction ratio, receiver sensitivity, and transmitter power.
• Characterize modulators, photodetectors, lasers, waveguides, couplers, and high-speed EIC/PIC interfaces.
• Validate co-packaged optics, including SerDes and UCIe interfaces, thermal management, signal integrity, power integrity, and optical coupling efficiency.
• Design wafer-, package-, and system-level test setups covering active alignment, thermal cycling, reliability stress, and environmental qualification.
• Analyze validation datasets, perform failure analysis and root-cause investigations, support prototype bring-up and debug, and drive corrective actions with design, packaging, test, and manufacturing teams.

Requirements

• Master’s or PhD in Electrical Engineering, Optical Engineering, Photonics, Physics, or a related field.
• 10+ years of hands-on experience in silicon photonics or optical transceiver validation.
• Strong experience with EIC/PIC co-design validation and multiple optical configurations.
• Expertise with BER testers, sampling oscilloscopes, VNAs, spectrum analyzers, tunable lasers, optical power meters, and automated test equipment.
• Proficiency in photonic test automation using Python, LabVIEW, or equivalent, plus data analysis with JMP, MATLAB, or Python/Pandas.
• Deep understanding of optical coupling, thermal effects in 2.5D/3D packaging, high-speed signal integrity, and photonic component qualification standards.

Nice to have

• Experience validating production-grade silicon photonics modules for hyperscale data centers or AI clusters.
• Knowledge of 2.5D/3D stacking, hybrid bonding, interposers, and other advanced packaging technologies.
• Experience with 112G/224G PAM4 SerDes and optical I/O chiplets.
• Experience shipping high-volume optical products, with publications or patents in silicon photonics or co-packaged optics.

Culture & Benefits

• Work on connectivity technologies for high-speed data center, AI/ML, and telecom applications.
• Collaborate cross-functionally with PIC Design, EIC Design, Packaging, Test Engineering, and Manufacturing teams.
• Mentor junior engineers and contribute to patents and technical publications.
• Discretionary bonus, incentives, and benefits may be available.
• The company encourages applications from candidates with diverse backgrounds and experiences.