Senior PIC Designer (Switches)

Job Description

Job Title: Senior PIC Designer (Switches). Location: Palo Alto, California, USA

Responsibilities:

• Lead the design and development of advanced photonic integrated circuits (PICs) for next-generation optical interconnect applications.
• Drive PIC development from architecture through simulation, active device integration, layout, tapeout, and hardware validation.
• Design integrated photonic circuits, including active switching elements, optical modulators, routing networks, and polarization management structures.
• Perform optical and electrical simulations and modeling of photonic devices, switching behavior, and control systems;
• Develop calibration methods for photonic tuning, monitor photodiodes, crosstalk mitigation, and automated control workflows.
• Collaborate with electronics, driver, firmware, packaging, and test engineering teams to develop high-performance optical platforms.
• Work with electronics teams on DACs, drivers, and electro-photonic integration.
• Support chip tapeouts by participating in layout reviews, DRC/LVS verification, design for manufacturability (DFM), and foundry coordination.
• Support silicon validation, laboratory characterization, and correlation between simulation results and hardware performance;
• Improve the scalability, manufacturability, and performance of low-loss photonic circuits with emphasis on high-speed switching and active photonics.

Qualifications:

• Ph.D. or M.S. in Electrical Engineering, Physics, Photonics, or a related field.
• At least 5 years of experience in silicon photonics or integrated photonic circuit design.
• Strong experience designing active photonic devices, switching architectures, and electro-optic tuning systems.
• Experience working with electronic interfaces, drivers, DACs, and photonic control systems;
• Proficiency with photonic simulation and design tools such as ADS, VPIphotonics, Lumerical, INTERCONNECT, Cadence, or KLayout.
• Hands-on experience supporting PIC development through tapeout and hardware validation.
• Familiarity with calibration methods, thermal effects, and fabrication variability.

Preferred:

• Experience designing scalable, low-loss photonic switching architectures.
• Experience collaborating across photonics, electronics, firmware, packaging, and testing teams.
• Knowledge of silicon photonics manufacturing processes and semiconductor fabrication workflows.
• Experience optimizing manufacturability and validating photonic hardware.

Benefits and Compensation:

• U.S. base salary: $130,000 to $170,000 annually.
• Bay Area base salary: $170,000 to $195,000 annually.
• Eligible for equity as part of the total compensation package.
• Comprehensive employee benefits for full-time employees;
• Opportunity to contribute to the development of large-scale fault-tolerant quantum computing systems.
• Work alongside multidisciplinary teams developing cutting-edge silicon photonics technology.

Other Information:

• Position is based in Palo Alto, California.
• PsiQuantum is developing million-qubit, fault-tolerant quantum computers using silicon photonics technology.
• The company collaborates with leading industry partners and global organizations to develop practical quantum computing applications.
• Equal employment opportunity is provided to all qualified applicants regardless of protected characteristics under applicable law;
• Applicants should only communicate through official PsiQuantum email addresses. The company will never request banking information during the hiring process.
• Unsolicited resumes from employment agencies are not accepted.
• Applicants are instructed to include the word "purple" in their cover letter as part of the application process.