System Validation Engineer

Description New. Photonics is an award-winning fabless semiconductor company specializing in advanced silicon photonics and all-optical interconnect solutions for data centers and AI infrastructure. The company's core technology involves replacing power-hungry digital silicon chips with silicon photonic chips, aiming to improve performance and energy efficiency for AI clusters.

Job Description We are looking for a System Validation Engineer to take ownership of system-level validation for our next-generation silicon photonics ICs powering hyperscale data center transceivers. You will be involved with defining test strategies and automation architectures to hands-on silicon bring-up, working alongside Systems and Firmware engineering to directly shape the quality and maturity of our optical platforms.

Requirements

Main Responsibilities Execute rigorous system-level validation plans for advanced photonic ICs and high-speed optical links. Evaluate comprehensive PIC behavior across electrical, thermal, and optical domains, validating modulators, optical receivers, and integrated monitoring circuitry. Execute multi-corner PVT characterization to ensure robust operational margins under extreme environmental conditions.

Investigate and root-cause hardware, optical, and firmware-level bottlenecks across the entire optical datapath. Collaborate closely with Firmware, Systems, Optical Engineering, and Algorithms groups to drive defect resolution and optimize overall transceiver performance.

Qualifications

& Requirements B.Sc. in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, or a related discipline. 2+ years of hands-on experience in silicon- or system-level validation for high-speed ICs or optical transceivers. Demonstrated lab proficiency with high-speed test instrumentation (BERT, oscilloscopes, optical meters). Solid programming skills in Python for test bench automation, instrument interfacing, and data processing.

Independent problem-solver with strong task-prioritization skills, comfortable operating in a fast-paced environment with minimal guidance. Star Candidate Advantages Direct experience characterizing coherent optical transceiver modules. Proven background in DSP or high-speed ASIC post-silicon bring-up and debug. End-to-end silicon bring-up experience, extending to customer platform integration and field issue triage.

Prior experience thriving in dynamic, fast-paced startup cultures.