Senior Optical Test Engineer – Silicon Photonics
Location: Santa Clara, CA / On-site / Compensation: Base salary + equity
About the role
Our client is a growing, well-funded startup developing silicon photonic technology to address bottlenecks in AI processing. It’s hiring a Senior Optical Test Engineer to own how its optical systems are measured, from first prototype through to high-volume manufacturing (HVM).
You’ll build photonic and optical test stations from scratch, then scale them through to production. That means designing, building, and debugging optical measurement systems using instrumentation such as optical spectrum analyzers (OSAs), tunable lasers, OTDR/OFDR, and bit error rate testers (BERTs). You’ll carry out characterization at wafer, die, or module level. Test development of this kind typically also involves precision fiber alignment stages, polarization control, and source measure units for electrical stimulus, with careful attention to measurement repeatability through methods such as gauge R&R studies.
Moving from prototype benches to production test is a central part of the role. That usually means automating test stations so they can run consistently and quickly, often in Python with instrument control libraries such as PyVISA, and building data pipelines that make results easy to analyze and trace.
Main responsibilities
- Own how optical systems are measured, from first prototype through to HVM
- Build photonic and optical test stations from scratch and scale them into production
- Build and debug optical measurement systems
- Characterize devices at wafer, die, or module level
- Automate test benches to support repeatable, production-scale testing
Requirements
- Hands-on experience building photonic or optical test stations from scratch and scaling them through to production
- Ability to build and debug optical measurement systems
- Sound knowledge of optical instrumentation, including OSAs, tunable lasers, OTDR/OFDR, and BERTs
- Experience with wafer, die, or module-level characterization
Nice to have:
- Experience automating test benches using Python
The offer
- Base salary
- Equity
- On-site in Santa Clara, CA
- Ownership of optical test from prototype to high-volume manufacturing
This role suits an optical test engineer who enjoys building measurement systems from the ground up and taking them into production. If that sounds like you, apply below.