Silicon Photonics Control & Calibration Engineer - Optical Circuit Switches (OCS)

Job description

Job responsibilities

• Characterize the control behavior of photonic devices such as thermo-optic phase shifters, MZIs, and switch elements, including drive response, thermal crosstalk, drift, and variation.
• Design calibration routines and closed-loop control algorithms, prototyping them in Python and validating on test benches and hardware-in-the-loop setups.
• Derive driver electronics requirements from device physics and control needs, such as DAC/ADC resolution and noise, bandwidth, channel count, power, and inter-channel crosstalk.
• Validate driver hardware against those requirements, partnering with electronics engineers on design tradeoffs.
• Hand off algorithms to firmware as clear specifications with reference implementations and test vectors.
• Own final validation of firmware-implemented control and calibration, comparing embedded behavior against the Python reference.
• Design, build, and automate the test setups that support all of the above.
• Collaborate closely with photonics design, test, electronics, and firmware engineers, and generate clear reports that drive decisions.

Job requirements

• MS in Electrical Engineering, Physics, Optics, or a related field, or a BS with equivalent experience (PhD a plus).
• 4+ years of hands-on experience in control, calibration, or characterization of optical, photonic, or other precision physical systems, though we're open to exceptional candidates at other experience levels who show…
• Strong fundamentals in control and estimation: feedback design, stability, noise, and system identification from measured data.
• Solid understanding of photonic device physics, particularly phase shifters and interferometric devices.
• Mixed-signal electronics literacy sufficient to write and verify driver specifications and debug at the board level.
• Proficiency in Python for algorithm prototyping, test automation, and data analysis.
• Hands-on experience with lab equipment and demonstrated experience automating test setups.
• Ability to read embedded C/C++ and debug alongside firmware engineers.