Principal Engineer, Silicon Photonics Design

Job Title

Principal Engineer, Silicon Photonics Design

Role Summary

Lead design and verification of silicon-photonic components, integrated photonic circuits, and high-bandwidth photonic systems used in data-center and AI optical engines. Work within a cross-functional international engineering team on device design, mask layout, tape-out, testing, and characterization.

Experience Level

Senior (Principal). Requires 5+ years of industry experience in a high‑tech engineering environment.

Responsibilities

Key responsibilities include:

• Simulate and design active and passive photonic integrated components, circuits, and high-bandwidth photonic systems.
• Translate device operational specifications into mask layouts and maintain PDKs and design libraries.
• Drive tape-out activities including layout verification, DRC, documentation, and coordination with foundries.
• Contribute to development and maintenance of simulation and mask-layout software and tools.
• Test, characterize, and qualify photonic components and integrated circuits; analyze measurement data and compare with simulations to optimize performance.
• Perform root-cause and failure analysis of components and integrated circuits.

Requirements

Must-have and preferred qualifications:

• 5+ years of industry experience in silicon photonics or related semiconductor/optical engineering roles.
• Strong understanding of silicon photonics, semiconductor physics, optical component design, fabrication, and testing.
• Background in optical communications or high-frequency electro-optical characterization (typically >40 GHz).
• Hands-on experience with photonic device characterization and high-speed testing in a development environment.
• Experience with photonic electromagnetic field simulation tools (Lumerical preferred) and RF electromagnetic simulation (HFSS preferred).
• Experience with code-based mask layout for photonic ICs (Synopsys preferred), external PDKs, libraries, and DRC; tape-out experience preferred.
• Strong communication and collaboration skills; ability to lead cross-functional technical work.
• Nice-to-have: advanced packaging or 2.5D/3D integration experience; multi-foundry tape-out experience.

Education Requirements

Master's degree and/or PhD in Electrical Engineering, Photonics, or a related technical field.

About the Company

Company: Marvell Technology

Headquarters: Santa Clara, California, United States

Marvell’s semiconductor solutions serve as essential building blocks of the data infrastructure connecting our world, driving innovation across enterprise, cloud, AI, and carrier architectures. The company focuses on creating transformative technology that shapes the future.