Photonics Design Engineer

Great Sky•Boulder, CO

23h

About The Position

Great Sky is a technology startup pursuing neuroscience-inspired hardware and algorithms to address challenges in scaling AI systems. The Photonics Design Engineer will design detector-integrated photonic networks for the company’s cryogenic technology platform, owning active and passive photonic components and circuits from simulation and layout through foundry tapeout. The role also works with foundry process teams to ensure designs are manufacturable and has substantial influence on the pace and direction of hardware development. The engineer will design, simulate, and optimize photonic components and circuits on silicon nitride and silicon platforms, including detector-integrated circuits with electrical readout. The role includes preparing foundry runs, maintaining internal photonic design infrastructure, and collaborating with testing, packaging, and systems integration teams to compare cryogenic measurements with simulations and accelerate development cycles.

Requirements

BS, MS, or PhD in physics, electrical engineering, optics, or a related field, or equivalent practical experience.
Strong proficiency in industry-standard electromagnetic simulation methods, including FDTD and EME, and software such as Ansys Lumerical or Tidy3D.
Experience designing devices on silicon nitride and/or silicon photonics platforms, such as grating couplers, edge couplers, splitters, and waveguide transitions.
Solid understanding of photonic layout concepts and Design Rule Checking (DRC), and familiarity with standard layout tools such as KLayout, Luceda, or Cadence.
Experience developing or extending a PDK, including PCells, component libraries, design rules, or compact models.

Nice To Haves

Experience taping out photonic designs through a foundry or MPW program, such as imec, AIM Photonics, or Ligentec.
Experience designing SNSPDs or other waveguide-integrated detectors, or active devices such as phase shifters and modulators.
Experience with multi-layer SiN platforms and interlayer couplers.
Hands-on optical and electro-optical characterization experience, such as fiber coupling, waveguide loss, grating coupler, and photodetector measurements.
Experience fabricating devices on at least one of these platforms: silicon photonics, silicon nitride, and/or superconducting electronics.
Experience using AI tools, including agentic AI, to improve photonic designs and write layout code.

Responsibilities

Design, simulate, and optimize passive photonic components on silicon nitride and silicon platforms, including waveguides, grating and edge couplers, splitters, mode converters, resonators, and optical I/O.
Design active components for cryogenic operation, including waveguide-integrated superconducting nanowire single-photon detectors (SNSPDs) and phase shifters or modulators.
Design and lay out detector-integrated photonic circuits combining passive optical routing, integrated detectors, and electrical readout.
Prepare foundry multi-project wafer (MPW) and dedicated-run tapeouts, including layout, verification, design reviews against foundry PDKs, and test structures for measuring component performance and process variation.
Build and maintain internal PDKs, component libraries, and script-based layout and DRC flows, such as those using GDSFactory and KLayout.
Work with foundry process teams to ensure design infrastructure and designs align with process capabilities and design rules.
Collaborate with test, packaging, and systems integration teams to compare measured cryogenic performance with simulation and accelerate design-build-test-learn cycles.