Senior Photonics Design Engineer, Actives Design

Job Title

Senior Photonics Design Engineer, Actives Design

Role Summary

Join Intel Integrated Photonics Solutions (IPS) within the Data Center Group as a senior engineer focused on active photonic components and high-speed photonic integrated circuit (PIC) design. The role leads design, simulation, test-chip execution, and validation to advance silicon photonics for data-center optical interconnects.

Work on modulators, high-speed detectors, phase control and related active devices; drive architecture decisions, modeling methodology, and data-driven design improvements to meet high-speed, power, area, and reliability targets.

Experience Level

Senior — requires substantial industry or research experience. Posting indicates candidates typically have 6+ years of silicon photonic design experience and demonstrated high-speed component work (50+ Gbaud and beyond).

Responsibilities

Primary responsibilities include technical leadership across component design, test, and improvement cycles.

• Design, simulate, and develop active photonic components (modulators, high-speed detectors, phase control, carrier injection devices, diodes).
• Perform tolerance analysis and optimize components for performance, power, area, and reliability using advanced modeling.
• Lead end-to-end test-chip execution: design, layout coordination, tape-out, and validation.
• Analyze characterization data to identify performance gaps and implement design improvements.
• Develop photonic modeling methodologies and new test approaches to accelerate development cycles.
• Conduct research on novel photonic technologies, define next-generation architectures, and drive IP development.

Requirements

Must-have technical skills and experience; preferred items listed separately.

• 6+ years experience designing, simulating, and testing silicon photonic components in industry or research settings.
• Experience designing high-speed optical modulators and/or detectors for 50+ Gbaud applications on silicon or III-V platforms.
• Proficiency with device and electromagnetic simulation tools (examples: Sentaurus, Silvaco, Lumerical DEVICE, HFSS, ADS, Lumerical FDTD/MODE).
• Experience with photonic circuit simulation tools (examples: Lumerical Interconnect, RSoft, Tidy3D, Harold-Photon Design).
• Hands-on test and characterization experience with equipment such as optical spectrum analyzers, tunable lasers, optical backscatter reflectometers, optical vector analyzers, and fiber/free-space coupling systems.
• Data analysis and design optimization skills using statistical tools or libraries (JMP, MATLAB, Python).
• Familiarity with industry-standard layout tools (Cadence, KLayout) and coordinating layout/tape-out flows.

Nice-to-have / preferred:

• Modulator specialization (microring/MRM or advanced materials: BTO, TFLN, III-V).
• Understanding of high-speed electronic ICs (drivers, TIAs, post-amplifiers, FFE/DFE, DSP).
• Experience with modulator bias control systems and system-level optical link modeling.
• Experience with 100G+ photonic components, foundry processes (AIM Photonics, GlobalFoundries, TSMC), peer-reviewed publications, or customer-facing/product development roles.

Education Requirements

Minimum: PhD in Electrical Engineering, Physics, or a similar discipline (posting specifies PhD with relevant experience). Fields mentioned include Electrical Engineering and Physics; industry/research experience in silicon photonics is expected.

About the Company

Company: Intel Corporation

Headquarters: Santa Clara, California, USA

Intel Corporation is a leading multinational technology company known for its innovative semiconductor solutions, including microprocessors, artificial intelligence accelerators, and memory products. Headquartered in the United States, Intel focuses on cutting-edge technology and a collaborative working environment, driving advancements in semiconductor manufacturing to meet global demands. The company emphasizes professional development and aims to shape the future of technology through groundbreaking designs.