Senior Silicon Photonics Design Engineer

Job Title

Senior Silicon Photonics Design Engineer

Role Summary

As a Senior Silicon Photonics Design Engineer on Intel's Integrated Photonics Solutions team, you will design, simulate, and validate silicon photonic integrated circuit components for optical communication systems. The role focuses on device- and component-level design (passive and active devices), test-chip development, modeling, and cross-disciplinary integration to meet performance, power, and manufacturability targets.

Your work will influence next-generation data-center optical interconnects and high-volume photonics deployment.

Experience Level

Senior-level. Typical experience: 4+ years in photonics device design and simulation; see Education Requirements for degree-dependent experience equivalencies.

Responsibilities

Primary responsibilities include component design, verification, and driving tests from tapeout to validation:

• Design, simulate, and optimize modulators, passive devices, and detectors for silicon PICs.
• Perform tolerance and reliability analyses to ensure performance under varying conditions.
• Lead test-chip development: design, layout, tapeout, testing, and validation.
• Analyze test data, identify performance gaps, and drive design improvements.
• Develop and implement photonic modeling and test methodologies.
• Research next-generation photonic architectures and contribute to intellectual property development.
• Collaborate with electrical, systems, packaging, and manufacturing teams to meet system-level requirements.

Requirements

Must-have technical skills and experience (concise):

• 4+ years of photonic device design and simulation experience using tools such as Lumerical (FDTD, MODE, DEVICE, Interconnect), RSoft, or Tidy3D.
• 4+ years hands-on experience in photonic integrated circuit design through concept to high-volume manufacturing.
• 4+ years experience with photonic test methodologies and equipment (optical spectrum analyzers, tunable lasers, optical vector analyzers).
• 4+ years using layout tools for PIC tapeouts (Cadence, KLayout).
• Experience managing statistical analysis of photonic test data using JMP, Python, or MATLAB.
• Strong ability to develop and implement modeling methodologies and new test approaches.
• Preferred: exposure to inverse design, circuit-level simulation, AI-assisted design workflows, system-level link modeling, and optical coupling solutions.
• Preferred: familiarity with electronic-photonic integration (drivers, TIAs, DSPs) and strong cross-team communication skills.

Education Requirements

Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering, Physics, Optical Science, or a related field with 4+ years of experience; OR Master's degree with 3+ years of experience; OR Ph.D. with 1+ year of experience.

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.