Principal Optical Engineer - Light Sources

Job Title

Principal Optical Engineer - Light Sources

Role Summary

Lead end-to-end development of external light source technology for high-performance photonic interconnect products, taking designs from concept through procurement, characterization, qualification, and volume manufacturing.

Work cross-functionally with systems, packaging, firmware, manufacturing, quality, and supply chain teams and act as the primary vendor contact to resolve performance, yield, and supply issues.

Experience Level

Senior level. Typical experience ranges: ~10–15 years for candidates with a Bachelor's degree, or ~5–10 years for candidates with a Master's or PhD.

Responsibilities

Primary responsibilities include technical leadership of light-source products and cross-team coordination.

• Define and drive development of external light sources from selection and design through production release and lifecycle support.
• Specify, procure, and qualify laser components and fiber sub-assemblies; manage vendor relationships and resolve supply or performance issues.
• Develop and execute reliability assessment and qualification plans for optical components, especially lasers.
• Design and validate assembly, packaging, and integration processes for data-center environments.
• Set up and maintain test stations for laser characterization; analyze test data to guide design and manufacturing decisions.
• Collaborate with systems and silicon photonics teams to ensure manufacturability and integration of external components.
• Document technical specifications, qualification results, and production release criteria.

Requirements

Must-have technical skills and experience focused on lasers, assembly, testing, and vendor management. Nice-to-have items are listed separately.

• Must-have: Strong practical experience with semiconductor DFB laser diodes and sound understanding of laser physics and fundamentals.
• Must-have: Experience with laser assembly and packaging techniques suitable for data-center products.
• Must-have: Track record of managing vendor engagements for component procurement and addressing performance/yield/supply issues.
• Must-have: Experience planning and running reliability assessments and qualification programs for optical components, particularly lasers.
• Must-have: Experience with fiber-optic and integrated-optics components and assemblies and knowledge of manufacturing processes for integrating external components into silicon photonics products.
• Must-have: Familiarity with laser characterization equipment and test methods (e.g., OSAs, reflectometers, pulsed and CW measurements) and setting up test stations.
• Must-have: Experience using free-space/optical design tools such as Zemax or Code V.
• Must-have: Ability to collect and analyze large datasets; experience with tools like JMP, DataConductor, or similar.
• Nice-to-have: Familiarity with silicon photonics systems and integrated photonics product workflows.

Education Requirements

Required: Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, or a related field with ~10–15 years of relevant experience; alternatively a Master’s degree or PhD in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, or related fields with ~5–10 years of relevant experience.

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.