Principal Photonics IC Design Engineer

NVIDIA•Santa Clara, CA

1d•$232,000 - $368,000

About The Position

NVIDIA's Mixed-Signal Design (MSD) Photonics team is building the next generation of co-packaged optical interconnects to power the world's most advanced AI supercomputers. We are looking for a Principal Photonics IC Design Engineer to serve as the technical lead owning our photonics integrated circuit (PIC) product — from architecture definition through production tapeout and silicon validation.

Requirements

PhD in Electrical Engineering, Physics, Applied Physics, or a closely related field with emphasis on integrated photonics, silicon photonics, or photonic device physics (or equivalent experience).
8+ years of industry experience in photonics IC design, with demonstrated progression into technical leadership roles
Deep hands-on expertise with Cadence design environment (Virtuoso, PCell development, SKILL scripting) for photonic IC layout and simulation
Proven track record of production tapeouts — you have personally driven PICs from design through GDS signoff on a foundry silicon photonics process
Strong understanding of photonic device physics: waveguides, passive/active components, ring/MZI modulators, photodetectors, optical couplers
Demonstrated technical leadership: setting project scope, making architecture tradeoffs, driving cross-team alignment, and delivering on schedule

Nice To Haves

Experience with high-speed (>50 Gbaud) optical modulator or receiver PIC design for datacom/telecom applications
Experience with DWDM PIC architectures (MUX/DEMUX, multi-channel transceivers, wavelength tuning)
Familiarity with co-packaged optics (CPO) system requirements and advance packaging integration
Experience with photonic circuit simulation and CAD tools (Ansys Lumerical, ZeMax, Cadence, MATLAB, Python and Verilog-A) and electromagnetic solvers (FDTD, FDE, EME)
Track record of publications and/or patents in silicon photonics

Responsibilities

Own end-to-end PIC product delivery: architecture, design, layout, DRC/LVS verification, tapeout, and post-silicon validation on advanced silicon photonics platforms
Lead cross-functional execution across photonic device, analog/mixed-signal, packaging, and systems teams
Drive tapeout schedules, define design milestones, and resolve critical path issues across multiple concurrent PIC programs
Architect optical transceiver PICs integrating modulators, photodetectors, wavelength multiplexing, waveguides, and optical couplers for high-speed and/or DWDM applications
Define and improve PIC design methodology, automation (e.g., scripted DRC, parameterized cells), and verification flows in Cadence and related EDA tools
Mentor and technically guide a team of photonics designers; set technical direction for the photonics PIC roadmap