Senior / Principal Applications Engineer – Co‑Packaged Optics (CPO)

Job Title

Senior / Principal Applications Engineer – Co‑Packaged Optics (CPO)

Role Summary

Member of the CPO Applications team providing hands‑on technical support to enable customer adoption of co‑packaged optics (CPO) in GPUs, accelerators, and large‑scale compute platforms. The role combines system architecture, optical and electrical design, advanced packaging, and lab characterization to drive customer designs from architecture to qualification.

Experience Level

Senior level — typically requires 10+ years of relevant experience in high‑speed interconnects, optics, or advanced packaging.

Responsibilities

Primary responsibilities include customer technical leadership, system solution definition, and hands‑on lab support.

• Serve as the primary technical interface for strategic customers integrating CPO into GPUs, accelerators, and scale‑up platforms.
• Lead customer architecture reviews, design‑in engagements, and deep‑dive technical discussions.
• Translate system‑level customer requirements into complete CPO solutions spanning optics, electrical, mechanical, thermal, and test.
• Define end‑to‑end CPO solutions: optical engines and silicon photonics integration; high‑speed electrical interfaces (112G+; die‑to‑die; advanced SerDes); signal integrity, power delivery, thermal, and packaging constraints; mechanical integration into GPU/accelerator packages.
• Support host system integration including board‑level considerations, cooling, and manufacturability.
• Perform hands‑on lab bring‑up, test, characterization, debug, qualification, and failure analysis of CPO systems.
• Provide clear technical guidance, trade‑off analyses, and risk mitigation throughout the customer design cycle.
• Act as technical demo lead and owner for optical industry events when required.

Requirements

Must‑have technical skills and experience; items listed under Education Requirements have been moved to the Education section.

• 10+ years of experience in high‑speed interconnects, optics, and/or advanced packaging.
• High‑level working knowledge of Co‑Packaged Optics and deployment in large‑scale compute systems.
• Deep understanding of optical link architectures and budgets, high‑speed SI/PI, and GPU/accelerator packaging and integration constraints.
• Experience with CPO test, qualification, and manufacturing considerations.
• Proven track record supporting customer design‑ins at the system or package level and driving technical decisions with Tier‑1 customers.
• Strong debugging and hands‑on lab capability across electrical, optical, and thermal domains.
• Excellent communication and leadership skills for technical meetings and cross‑functional coordination.

Education Requirements

Bachelor's, Master's, or PhD in Electrical Engineering, Optical 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.