Senior PIC Designer (Switches)

Job Title

Senior PIC Designer (Switches)

Role Summary

Lead the design and delivery of advanced integrated photonic circuits (PICs) focused on high-speed switching, tuning, and active photonics for optical interconnect applications. Work within a cross-functional hardware team to take designs from architecture and simulation through layout, tapeout, and lab validation.

Experience Level

Senior — requires demonstrated independent technical leadership. Posting specifies 5+ years of relevant experience in silicon photonics or integrated photonic design.

Responsibilities

The role owns PIC design and validation activities and coordinates integration with electronics and packaging teams.

• Design PICs with active switching elements, modulators, routing networks, and polarization management.
• Perform optical and electrical simulations and modeling of device behavior, switching dynamics, and control performance.
• Develop calibration and automated control methods for tuning, monitor photodiodes, and crosstalk mitigation.
• Collaborate with electronics, driver, DAC, firmware, packaging, and test teams for electro-photonic integration.
• Support layout reviews, DRC/LVS checks, DFM, and foundry tapeout coordination.
• Lead silicon validation, lab characterization, and simulation-to-hardware correlation activities.
• Drive manufacturable, low-loss circuit designs with attention to thermal effects and fabrication variability.

Requirements

Must-have technical skills and experience; concise list of core qualifications.

• 5+ years of silicon photonics or integrated photonic design experience.
• Strong experience with active photonic devices, switching architectures, and electro-optic tuning.
• Experience with electronic interfaces, drivers, DACs, and photonic control systems.
• Hands-on experience supporting PIC development through layout, tapeout, and validation.
• Proficiency with simulation and design tools such as ADS, VPIphotonics, Lumerical, INTERCONNECT, Cadence, and KLayout.
• Practical knowledge of calibration methods, thermal effects, and strategies to mitigate fabrication variability and crosstalk.
• Ability to coordinate with foundries and cross-disciplinary engineering teams to deliver high-performance optical platforms.
• Excellent written and verbal communication for technical reviews and documentation.

Education Requirements

Ph.D. or M.S. in Electrical Engineering, Physics, Photonics, or a closely related technical field.

Equal Employment

PsiQuantum is an equal opportunity employer.

About the Company

Company: PsiQuantum

Headquarters: Palo Alto, CA, United States

PsiQuantum develops silicon-photonic quantum computers aimed at building million-qubit, fault-tolerant systems. Founded in 2016, the company combines semiconductor manufacturing processes, photonic hardware, and quantum software to scale quantum systems for commercial and government applications.