Senior Silicon Photonics Design Engineer

Job Title

Senior Silicon Photonics Design Engineer

Role Summary

Join a team responsible for silicon photonics design and modeling to support optical interconnects for high-performance computing. The role focuses on electro-optic co-simulation, compact-model development, and model validation at the electronic–photonic boundary.

You will collaborate with circuit, system, characterization engineers, and foundry contacts to deliver verified photonic models and a shared component library for design use.

Experience Level

Senior — typically 5+ years of industry or applied R&D experience in photonics and/or high-speed electronic design.

Responsibilities

Primary responsibilities include building co-simulation flows, extracting and validating compact models, and supporting integration with circuit design environments.

• Develop and maintain electro-optic co-simulation flows, integrating Verilog-A compact models with circuit/link simulators.
• Define silicon-photonics test structures and characterization plans; extract model parameters from optical, electrical, RF, thermal measurements.
• Build and calibrate compact/behavioral models for modulators, resonators, photodetectors, couplers, waveguides, splitters, and phase shifters.
• Correlate and validate models against foundry and in-house measurement data (spectra, S-parameters, OMA/ER).
• Partner with circuit/SerDes designers, system teams, and foundry contacts to ensure models meet design requirements.
• Contribute to the shared component library: versioning, documentation, QA, and releases.

Requirements

Must-have technical skills and experience required to perform the role.

• Experience integrating photonic models into circuit design environments; Verilog-A compact modeling and co-simulation (Cadence ecosystem experience is a plus).
• Proven track record in silicon photonics device modeling, compact modeling, or optical component design.
• Experience with photonic simulation tools such as Lumerical (FDTD, MODE, INTERCONNECT, CHARGE) or comparable tools (Ansys, Synopsys OptoDesigner/RSoft).
• Solid understanding of photonic device physics: resonator theory (CMT, Q, FSR, ER/OMA), carrier-based and thermo-optic modulation, waveguide loss and dispersion.
• Experience building verification/testbench environments and correlating models to measurements; strong debugging and analytical skills.

Nice-to-have:

• Foundry PDK flow experience, photonic layout/DRC awareness, or optical VNA/LCA measurement background.

Education Requirements

MS and/or PhD in Electrical Engineering, Applied Physics, Photonics/Optical Engineering, or a related field; or equivalent practical experience.

About the Company

Company: NVIDIA

Headquarters: Santa Clara, California, USA

NVIDIA is a global leader in accelerated computing, renowned for its innovative solutions in AI and digital twins that transform diverse industries. The company specializes in networking technologies, providing end-to-end InfiniBand and Ethernet solutions for servers and storage that optimize performance and scalability. NVIDIA serves sectors such as high-performance computing, enterprise data centers, and cloud computing, constantly reinventing its products and services to stay ahead in the market.