Principal Technical Program Manager

Coherent Corp. • Fremont, CA

7h • Hybrid

About The Position

Coherent Corp. is a global leader in lasers, engineered materials, and networking components, operating as a vertically integrated manufacturing company. They develop innovative products for diversified applications across industrial, optical communications, military, life sciences, semiconductor equipment, and consumer markets. The company emphasizes career development, challenging employees to perform at their best while offering competitive compensation, stability, longevity, and growth opportunities. The role is for a Principal Technical Program Manager, likely within the II-VI Aerospace & Defense division, which focuses on emerging technology in areas like atmospheric sensing and imaging, adaptive optics, optical communications, and coherent beam combining, often involving government contracts.

Requirements

• B.S. or M.S. in Electrical Engineering, Physics, Optics, Computer Engineering, or a related field.
• 7+ years in technical marketing, customer engineering, systems engineering, or technical program management for optical transceivers, networking, or datacenter hardware.
• Strong working knowledge of optical module qualification, firmware and system bring-up, CMIS, telemetry or DDM, power and thermal trade-offs, and switch or NIC interoperability.
• Proven ability to influence hyperscale customers and lead cross-functional teams across R&D, operations, quality, and external partners to close urgent technical issues.
• Excellent communication and program leadership: concise executive updates, clear decision options, and data-driven problem solving.

Nice To Haves

• Experience supporting 800G or 1.6T qualification, or similar high-speed optical products with hyperscale customers, is strongly preferred.

Responsibilities

• Lead technical engagement with Microsoft architecture, networking, qualification, and sourcing teams to align product configuration, performance targets, telemetry needs, and sample plans.
• Drive readiness before customer shipment by coordinating demo hardware or EVB, reference firmware, interoperability coverage, tolerance testing, corner-condition calibration, and proactive system-level verification.
• Own cross-functional issue resolution for firmware and system integration, CMIS interpretation, power and thermal limits, optical performance, telemetry, and manufacturing issues; ensure fast response and closure plans.
• Coordinate with switch, NIC, and system vendors and internal product lines to remove interoperability blockers and improve first-pass qualification success at Microsoft.
• Provide clear executive updates, risk registers, and trade-off recommendations covering schedule, capacity, yield, BOM diversity, and customer commitments.
• Build long-term trust with Microsoft engineering leaders through regular onsite and offsite reviews and hands-on support during bring-up, qualification, and ramp.

Benefits

• competitive salary and benefits
• comprehensive career development platform
• competitive compensation program
• significant opportunities exists for career advancement and professional development

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Principal
• Number of Employees: 5,001-10,000 employees