Photonic Component Modelling Engineer

Salience Labs; Abingdon; On-site; GBP 70,000 - 100,000; Full time

Job summary

Salience Labs Ltd is seeking a Photonic Component Modelling Engineer to build and qualify behavioral and compact models that capture underlying device physics. Your models will underpin system-level verification for mixed photonic and electronic components.

You will collaborate with system verification, photonic design and characterization teams to develop models for modulators, switches and detectors; extract parameters from lab data; and maintain Python/MATLAB tooling and regression suites to

Qualifications

• MS/PhD (or equivalent experience) in photonics, electrical engineering, applied physics, or a related field.
• 3+ years of experience in photonic component design and/or simulation.
• Strong scripting ability (Python and/or MATLAB) for model fitting, data analysis, and simulation/measurement correlation.
• Comfortable working in Linux and with version-controlled repositories.
• Strong documentation habits, including model specifications, QA reports, and traceability from reference data to released models.
• Clear communication and a collaborative approach across disciplines.

Responsibilities

• Develop and maintain models of optical primitives (modulators, switches, photodetectors, couplers, etc.) for simulation and system verification environments.
• Verify that models accurately represent device physics across process, voltage, and temperature (PVT) corners.
• Release models that pass defined QA criteria.
• Verify PDK component libraries so that PDK updates and process variations don’t break circuit-level simulations.
• Extract model parameters from lab measurements and work with characterization to correlate simulation with measurement.
• Build and maintain automated tooling (Python and/or MATLAB) for parameter extraction, model fitting, and regression tracking.
• Maintain regression suites so model and PDK changes are checked against reference data before release.
• Resolve model discrepancies found at system level and feed model-based design risks back to photonic design.
• Keep reproducible records: version-controlled models, scripts, reference data, and QA results.

Skills

Python

MATLAB

Linux

Version control

Documentation

Communication

Collaborative work

Education

MS/PhD or equivalent

Tools

FDTD

Mode solvers

Circuit-level simulators

Tcl scripting

Job description

About Us

Salience Labs is building an industry-defining approach to optical circuit switching for AI infrastructure, engineered for real latency reduction and cost savings. We're moving towards real-world deployment, and joining at this stage means genuine ownership over that next chapter, working alongside a highly technical team on one of the most consequential problems in AI infrastructure today.

About the Role

We're looking for a Photonic Component Modelling Engineer to build and qualify behavioral and compact models that accurately capture the underlying device physics. Your models will be the foundation for system-level verification of systems that combine photonic and electronic components.

You’ll need to understand how a component’s behavior shifts with its surrounding optical and electrical circuitry and with operating conditions.

What You’ll Do

Working closely with the system verification, photonic design, and photonic characterization teams, you will:

• Develop and maintain models of optical primitives (modulators, switches, photodetectors, couplers, etc.) for simulation and system verification environments
• Verify that models accurately represent device physics across process, voltage, and temperature (PVT) corners
• Release models that pass defined QA criteria
• Verify PDK component libraries so that PDK updates and process variations don’t break circuit-level simulations
• Extract model parameters from lab measurements and work with characterization to correlate simulation with measurement
• Build and maintain automated tooling (Python and/or MATLAB) for parameter extraction, model fitting, and regression tracking
• Maintain regression suites so model and PDK changes are checked against reference data before release
• Resolve model discrepancies found at system level and feed model-based design risks back to photonic design
• Keep reproducible records: version-controlled models, scripts, reference data, and QA results

What You Bring

Required

• MS/PhD (or equivalent experience) in photonics, electrical engineering, applied physics, or a related field
• 3+ years of experience in photonic component design and/or simulation
• Solid understanding of integrated photonic building blocks, both passive and active, and their electrical drive requirements
• Strong scripting ability (Python and/or MATLAB) for model fitting, data analysis, and simulation/measurement correlation
• Comfortable working in Linux and with version-controlled repositories
• Strong documentation habits, including model specifications, QA reports, and traceability from reference data to released models
• Clear communication and a collaborative approach across disciplines

Nice to have

• Experience modelling signal propagation in photonic integrated circuits
• Hands-on experience with silicon photonics platforms
• Experience with optical/photonic simulation tools (e.g., FDTD, mode solvers, circuit-level simulators)
• Familiarity with foundry PDK-based photonic design flows
• Tcl scripting