Senior Optical Test Engineer

If you are a Senior Optical Test Engineer with 8+ years of hands-on photonic characterization experience, please read on!

Based out of Santa Clara, CA, we are a well-funded, venture-backed optical switching startup. Our MEMS-based silicon photonics switches connect thousands of GPUs and memory units directly with light, removing a critical bottleneck in AI data centers. We have grown from 18 to over 50 people in the last year and are hiring across product development.

This is an optical engineering and experimental physics role, not a test software or station automation role. You will be the optical measurement expert: you decide what we measure, how we measure it, whether a measurement can be trusted, and what the data says about the device.

What You Will Be Doing

• Define characterization methodologies for silicon photonic devices and optical switching systems at wafer, die, and module level
• Establish rigorous measurement methods for insertion loss, return loss, wavelength- and polarization-dependent loss, chromatic dispersion, DGD, group delay ripple, and multipath interference
• Design and run experiments with tunable lasers, optical spectrum analyzers, polarization controllers, power meters, photodetectors, VNAs, BERTs, and OTDR/OFDR systems
• Distinguish true device behavior from measurement artifacts, calibration issues, and test-setup effects
• Analyze large optical datasets with statistics, modeling, and DOE to find trends, anomalies, and failure signatures
• Drive root cause with photonics design, MEMS, packaging, process, and reliability engineers, and turn results into design and process recommendations
• Work hands-on in the lab to debug experiments and protect measurement integrity
• Partner with test automation engineers to turn your methods into repeatable automated sequences; establish golden datasets, reference methods, and acceptance criteria
• Present clear conclusions and document methods, calibration procedures, and measurement limits

What We're Looking For

• 8+ years of hands-on experience in optical or photonic device characterization, experimental optics, or optical systems engineering
• BS, MS, or PhD in Optical Engineering, Applied Physics, Electrical Engineering, Photonics, or a related field
• Deep understanding of optical measurement physics and experimental methodology
• Hands-on experience characterizing photonic devices, components, or systems with laboratory optical instrumentation
• Experience interpreting complex optical datasets and connecting results to physical device behavior
• Background in silicon photonics, optical transceivers, datacenter or telecom optics, PICs, or optical switching
• Strong quantitative analysis in Python, MATLAB, JMP, or similar
• Experience with DOE, statistical analysis, measurement uncertainty, and experimental correlation
• Ability to independently design experiments, troubleshoot measurements, and drive technical investigations

Nice to Have

• Direct experience with silicon photonic devices, optical circuit switches, MEMS-based optical systems, or integrated photonics
• Experience characterizing switches, couplers, mux/demux, DWDM filters, circulators, modulators, lasers, or transceiver optical assemblies
• Correlating wafer-, die-, and module-level optical performance
• MSA, gauge R&R, Cp/Cpk, SPC, and yield analysis
• High-volume photonics or optical manufacturing experience

What's In It for You

• Own the measurement strategy for the whole product as one of a small number of optical engineers
• On-site in Santa Clara, CA

So, if you are a Senior Optical Test Engineer with hands-on photonics characterization experience, please apply today!