System Test Engineer: Photonic Hardware & Automation

Salience Labs; Abingdon; On-site; GBP 90,000 - 130,000; Full time

Job summary

Salience Labs is building photonic switching technology for AI infrastructure. This role defines, builds and operates the system test capability, covering complex opto-electronic setups, automation and structured test execution.

You will collaborate with Photonics, Electronics, Firmware and Product teams to ensure test readiness at milestones, optimise processes and drive progress with data-led clarity in a fast lab environment.

Qualifications

• Experience working hands-on in lab environments with complex optical, photonic or mixed signal electronic setups.
• Ability to build, debug and optimise measurement systems, and automate test workflows.
• Fluency with test coverage, data quality and repeatability in decision making.

Responsibilities

• Design and implement the system-level test strategy for Salience's photonic switching platform, including planning, setup, execution and reporting.
• Build and maintain complex optical/electronic measurement setups emphasising stability and safety.
• Automate test sequences and data capture to reduce manual workload and accelerate learning cycles.
• Develop clear views of test readiness, critical paths and parallelisable work.
• Create plans and prioritisation frameworks aligned with engineering constraints.
• Improve existing test processes by identifying waste and preparing setups ahead of hardware arrivals.
• Collaborate with Photonics, Electronics, Firmware and Product teams to align test outputs with system requirements.
• Drive disciplined execution with a focus on commercial outcomes.
• Help shape and lead the testing function even before formal line management.

Skills

Lab measurements

Test automation

Python (NumPy)

VISA/SCPI protocols

Data analysis

Job description

Salience Labs is building photonic switching technology for AI infrastructure. This role defines, builds and operates the system test capability, covering complex opto-electronic setups, automation and structured test execution.

You will collaborate with Photonics, Electronics, Firmware and Product teams to ensure test readiness at milestones, optimise processes and drive progress with data-led clarity in a fast lab environment.