Electro-Optic Link Hardware Engineer

Job Title

Electro-Optic Link Hardware Engineer

Role Summary

Lead verification and characterization of high-speed electro-optic links across multiple silicon and system programs. Work hands-on at the lab bench to develop measurement standards, modeling methodology, and resolve signal-integrity and link-performance issues.

Experience Level

Senior-level role. The posting expects experienced engineers with significant prior ownership of link verification and system-level debugging (see Education Requirements for specific years-of-experience guidance).

Responsibilities

Hands-on lab and system responsibilities; act as technical escalation for link and signal-integrity issues.

• Run lab characterization and debug of high-speed electrical/optical hardware, including investigation of novel failure modes.
• Build and validate system-level electrical/optical/EO channel models; correlate models with bench measurements.
• Own link budget, verification methodology, and validation measurements.
• Characterize eye diagrams, BER, jitter, equalization behavior, and channel impairments.
• Support silicon bring-up and root-cause debug with analog, package, PCB, and SerDes teams.
• Influence chip/package/system architecture tradeoffs based on empirical findings.
• Mentor senior and staff engineers while remaining hands-on in the lab.
• Develop automation and tooling to accelerate characterization and repeatable measurements.

Requirements

Must-have technical skills, tooling experience, and responsibilities. Preferred items are listed separately.

• Proven ownership of verification strategy for a full silicon/system program.
• Deep expertise in 56G/112G/224G+ serial links, SerDes equalization (CTLE/FFE/DFE), and signal integrity practices (S-parameters, crosstalk, link budgets).
• Hands-on lab experience leading difficult investigations to completion; comfortable with bench-level debugging.
• Strong scripting and automation skills (Python, MATLAB) for team-used frameworks and test automation.
• Proficiency with lab instruments: VNA, oscilloscopes, BERTs, TDRs, and experience with modeling/simulation tools such as ADS, HFSS, Cadence, COMSOL.
• Track record mentoring engineers and collaborating across package/PCB/analog/SerDes teams.
• Ability to influence architecture tradeoffs based on measurement-driven evidence.
• Must be able to comply with U.S. export control requirements where applicable.

Nice-to-have

• Experience with silicon photonics or electro-optic systems at the architecture level.
• Ownership of package/PCB/channel co-design.
• Experience with COM/IBIS-AMI modeling, patents, or contributions to standards (OIF, IEEE 802.3).

Education Requirements

MS or PhD in Electrical Engineering, Photonics, Physics (expected with ~8+ years experience) OR BS/MS with ~10+ years experience. Fields called out: EE, Photonics, Physics. (The posting frames degree levels together with years of experience rather than requiring a specific degree alone.)

About the Company

Company: Lightmatter

Headquarters: Boston, Massachusetts, USA

Lightmatter develops photonic AI data-center infrastructure and optical chips for extreme-scale AI and HPC. The company invented the Passage 3D‑stacked photonics engine to provide high-bandwidth, low-latency interconnects across large-scale processors and raised $400M in Series D financing at a reported $4.4B valuation.