Senior Photonics Circuit Design Engineer

Lightmatter•Mountain View, CA

8h•Hybrid

About The Position

Lightmatter is seeking a Photonics Circuit Design Engineer for its Laser System Architecture & Engineering team. The engineer will design and model photonic and analog sub-circuits used in Lightmatter’s Guide laser products and Passage optical links, including laser sources, wavelength-locking blocks, ring filter and modulator banks, multiplexers and demultiplexers, optical power splitting and monitoring, and photodetector-receiver front ends. The role bridges device physics and sub-circuit behavior. It involves building high-fidelity behavioral and compact models that account for fabrication variability, dispersion, thermal effects, and other component properties. These models will be used by systems architects in end-to-end product simulations and must be accurate, correlated to silicon, and ready for integration into larger simulations. The position requires a Ph.D. plus at least two years of industry experience, or an M.S. plus at least five years. Staff-level candidates are targeted at a Ph.D. with six or more years of experience or an M.S. with ten or more years. The role offers a hybrid workplace model and compensation of $150,000–$200,000, plus equity and other rewards. Benefits eligibility may vary by employment status and location. Candidates must be able to comply with U.S. export control requirements.

Requirements

Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering, Applied Physics, Photonics, or a related discipline plus at least 2 years of industry experience, or an M.S. plus at least 5 years of industry experience.
For staff-level consideration: Ph.D. with at least 6 years of experience or M.S. with at least 10 years of experience.
Deep background in silicon photonic physics and analog circuit fundamentals, with demonstrated ability to generate behavioral component models for circuit-level co-simulation.
Practical expertise with photonic modeling platforms such as Lumerical, RSoft, or Tidy3D and analog IC suites such as Cadence Virtuoso/Spectre.
Strong Python skills for modeling, data extraction, and maintainability of shared engineering codebases.
Analytical approach to complex, unstructured technical problems and data-driven decision-making.
Methodical engineering approach emphasizing structured review processes and simulation automation.
Clear written and verbal technical presentation skills.
Capacity to comply with federally mandated U.S. export control requirements.

Nice To Haves

Experience with microring modulators and filters, DWDM MUX/DEMUX, and thermal tuning.
Experience with laser and III-V photonics, including DFB, external-cavity or comb sources, SOAs, wavelength lockers, and heterogeneous integration.
Analog front-end experience with TIAs, modulator drivers, and heater drivers or DACs interfacing with photonic devices.
Experience with foundry silicon photonics PDKs and process-variation data, such as GlobalFoundries, TSMC, Tower, AIM, or imec.
Laboratory experience correlating models to measurements using OSA, tunable lasers, OVA/LCA, VNA, and wafer-level testing.
Publications or patents in photonic circuit design or modeling.

Responsibilities

Construct and maintain high-fidelity compact and behavioral models for active and passive silicon photonic elements, including waveguides, couplers, MZIs, micro-rings, multiplexers, phase-control elements, thermal tuners, modulators, detectors, and integrated III-V/SOA components.
Incorporate process variations, dispersion metrics, thermal-optical tuning characteristics, and nonlinear properties into component models.
Partner with device engineers to extract and calibrate parameter sets using optical solvers, foundry process design kits, and physical silicon data across tapeouts.
Design and deliver sub-circuit simulations for Guide laser modules, including optical sources, gain media, wavelength control loops, power distribution trees, monitors, and analog interfaces such as TIAs and converters.
Implement integrated sub-circuit models for Passage interconnect blocks, including modulated ring arrays, filter banks, thermal controls, drive circuits, DWDM MUX/DEMUX structures, and receiver front ends.
Refine sub-circuit topologies against performance indicators such as insertion loss, extinction ratio, signal isolation, tuning efficiency, operating bandwidth, and noise performance, in collaboration with circuit and device teams.
Perform corner, statistical Monte Carlo, and margin analyses to establish component tolerances, evaluate yield metrics, and inform test vehicles and architecture reviews.
Validate and iterate behavioral sub-circuit models using empirical silicon measurements across production cycles.