Photonic Integrated Circuit (PIC) Test & Characterization Engineer
About the role
Our client is hiring a PIC Test & Characterization Engineer to test and characterize photonic integrated circuits and individual photonic devices. You’ll work hands-on in the lab, turning fabricated chips into clear performance data that guides design iterations and helps the technology move toward higher-volume experimentation and production.
You’ll develop and run test and characterization plans covering both optical and electrical measurements. The devices span waveguides, grating couplers, modulators, photodetectors, resonators, switches, and other active and passive components. You’ll measure parameters such as optical loss, coupling efficiency, bandwidth, extinction ratio, responsivity, and insertion loss. Characterization of this kind commonly involves techniques like cutback measurements for propagation loss, resonator Q-factor extraction, and high-speed electro-optic measurements with VNAs, alongside fiber-to-chip coupling, optical alignment, and probing.
Automation is a big part of the role. You’ll build and improve automated test setups for wafer-level and packaged-device characterization, and develop Python-based workflows for measurement, data acquisition, analysis, and visualization. That typically means instrument control through libraries such as PyVISA, with analysis in NumPy, pandas, and Matplotlib.
You’ll work closely with PIC designers to compare measured results against simulations and design targets, and support debugging, root cause analysis, and design iterations. You’ll also collaborate with fabrication, packaging, electrical, and systems teams, and help establish repeatable characterization methods and test infrastructure as the technology scales.
Main responsibilities
- Develop and execute test and characterization plans for photonic integrated circuits and individual photonic devices
- Perform optical and electrical measurements of fabricated PICs and components
- Characterize waveguides, grating couplers, modulators, photodetectors, resonators, switches, and other active and passive photonic components
- Build and improve automated test setups for wafer-level and packaged-device characterization
- Develop Python-based measurement, data acquisition, analysis, and visualization workflows
- Perform fiber-to-chip coupling, optical alignment, probing, and other hands-on photonic measurements
- Analyze device performance, including optical loss, coupling efficiency, bandwidth, extinction ratio, responsivity, and insertion loss
- Compare measured performance against simulations and design targets with PIC designers
- Support debugging, root cause analysis, and design iterations based on experimental results
- Collaborate with fabrication, packaging, electrical, and systems teams to improve device and test performance
- Help establish repeatable characterization methods and test infrastructure for higher-volume experimentation and production
Requirements
- Experience testing and characterizing photonic integrated circuits or integrated optical devices
- Strong understanding of silicon photonics, silicon nitride photonics, or related integrated photonics platforms
- Hands-on experience with optical test equipment such as tunable lasers, optical power meters, OSAs, VNAs, photodetectors, and optical/electrical probes
- Experience with fiber-to-chip coupling, optical alignment, wafer probing, or packaged photonic devices
- Strong Python skills for test automation, data acquisition, analysis, and visualization
- Experience interpreting experimental data and connecting measured device behavior to underlying photonic designs and physics
- Ability to work hands-on in a lab and troubleshoot complex optical/electrical test setups
Nice to have:
- Familiarity with PIC fabrication, layouts, tapeouts, PDKs, or device simulation
- Experience with thin-film lithium niobate (TFLN) or lithium niobate photonics
- Experience with silicon nitride (SiN) PICs
- Experience with wafer-level automated testing or high-throughput photonic characterization
- Experience characterizing high-speed electro-optic devices
- Experience with Lumerical, COMSOL, or other photonic simulation tools
- Experience designing PIC test structures or contributing to PIC layouts
- Experience taking devices from design and fabrication through characterization and iteration
This role suits a photonics engineer who’s at home in the lab, enjoys automating measurements, and wants their results to shape the next design. If that sounds like you, apply below.