Principal Validation Engineer, Optical Interconnect

Job Title

Principal Validation Engineer, Optical Interconnect

Role Summary

Lead hardware and silicon validation for VCSEL-based optical interconnects within Marvell's Connectivity Business Group. Develop and maintain electrical and optical test platforms, evaluation boards, automated benches, and measurement methods from first silicon through production.

Collaborate with analog, DSP, digital, firmware, packaging, optics and PCB teams and manage external vendors and contract manufacturers across sites.

Experience Level

Senior level - requires 8+ years of relevant experience.

Responsibilities

Lead design, implementation and validation of test platforms, benches and boards. Key responsibilities include:

• Lead multiple test platform and board developments; set technical approach and manage schedule, quality and cost with internal teams and vendors.
• Design and develop electrical and optical test benches for VCSEL-based interconnects: architecture, instrument selection, calibration, automation and cross-lab correlation.
• Design PCBs, evaluation/characterization boards, test fixtures and optical/electrical adapters: requirements, schematic, stack-up, SI/PI, layout, fabrication, assembly and bring-up.
• Develop measurement techniques for optical links (power, spectrum, eye/waveform, BER, noise and jitter, link margin) and high-speed electrical interfaces; evaluate new instruments and tools.
• Bring up, debug and characterize electro-optical chiplets and products; define and execute validation and characterization plans from first silicon through tape-out.
• Qualify optics vendors and correlate results across vendors and sites.
• Automate benches and data flows (instrument control, data collection, statistical analysis and correlation) primarily in Python.
• Write test plans, characterization reports, bench and board design guidelines, and mentor a team of engineers; report schedule and progress to stakeholders.

Requirements

Must-have technical skills, experience and other requirements:

• 8+ years of relevant experience with proven technical leadership of teams or multiple projects and vendor management.
• Expert-level high-speed electrical lab measurement skills: real-time and sampling oscilloscopes, BERT, VNA/TDR, AWG, spectrum analyzers and strong lab technique.
• Expert-level optical lab measurement skills: optical power meters, optical spectrum analyzers, high-speed photoreceivers, fiber handling and optical alignment.
• Bench automation experience in Python for instrument control (SCPI/VISA/GPIB), data collection and analysis.
• Working knowledge of high-speed board design: reading schematics/layouts, SI/PI, transmission-line and EM fundamentals, PCB materials, fabrication and assembly; experience with OrCAD/Allegro or equivalent tools.
• Strong fundamentals in communication systems and analog/digital circuits; good troubleshooting and root-cause analysis skills.
• Fluent English and ability to work with remote teams across Italy, Vietnam, Canada and the US.
• May require eligibility for access to export-controlled technology; non-US applicants may be subject to export license review.

Nice-to-have: experience with MATLAB, JMP or R for data analysis; prior work on VCSEL-based optical interconnect programs.

Education Requirements

Master's or PhD in Electrical Engineering, Physics, Optical Engineering or a related field. The posting specifies 8+ years of related 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.