Advanced Packaging Engineer — Fiber Array Integration

CScale; Palo Alto (CA); On-site; USD 150,000 - 190,000; Full time

Job summary

CScale is seeking an optical packaging expert in Palo Alto to own the detachable optical interface for our engines and to drive production readiness. You will define interface architecture, coupling optics, and alignment strategies for repeatable, scalable assembly across supplier sites.

Ideal candidates will have 6+ years in optical packaging, hands-on metrology experience, and a track record turning development into robust production processes.

Qualifications

• 6+ years in optical or photonic packaging, taking an interface from dev to production.
• Experience with fiber-optic connector technology, ferrules and alignment.
• Mastery of tolerance analysis and GD&T for sub-micron interfaces.
• Knowledge of mode field matching, collimation, beam expansion, and return loss.
• Hands-on optical metrology: power meters, alignment testing, interferometric checks.
• Experience qualifying an optical interface against reliability standards.
• Willingness to work across labs and production sites in different time zones.

Responsibilities

• Own detachable interface architecture from design to production transfer.
• Define coupling optics and alignment strategies for plug interfaces.
• Budget insertion loss, per-port loss, and repeatability across cycles.
• Ensure high-volume manufacturing readiness and assembly tooling.
• Define contamination control, maintenance, and diagnostic criteria.
• Lead reliability studies and root-cause analyses on interfaces.

Skills

Years of Optical Packaging

Fiber-Optic Connector Tech

Tolerance Analysis (GD&T)

Fiber-to-Chip Coupling Physics

Optical Metrology Hands-on

Reliability & Qualification

English Communication Across Sites

Education

BS/MS/PhD in Optical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Physics, or Materials Science

Tools

Zemax

CODE V

Optical Metrology Equipment

Job description

CScale is building the interconnect for gigawatt-scale AI. As AI scale-up moves toward deployments spanning thousands of accelerators and dozens of racks, the network needs to deliver high bandwidth, predictable low latency, and continuous communication. CScale is building integrated optical interconnect designed for this new scale, enabling accelerators to work together like a single, much larger computer. But at this scale, performance is only part of the challenge. Optical failures are inevitable, and the system needs to keep running. CScale is designing the interconnect for continuity. Lasers will fail. Compute shouldn’t. The ambition is simple: Build AI interconnect you can take for granted. CScale came out of stealth in September 2026 with $145 million in Series C funding, bringing total funding to $188 million.

The Role

This position owns the detachable optical interface for CScale optical engines: the on-package element, the coupling optics, the alignment features, and the high-volume assembly process that joins fiber to engine without per-unit active alignment. Scope runs from interface architecture and tolerance budgeting through qualification and transfer of the production process to our assembly partners.

Responsibilities

Detachable interface architecture

• Define the location of the detachability point and the partition between the permanently attached on-package element and the mateable plug.
• Define the coupling optics for the detachable path, including expanded-beam or collimated design, lens prescription and tolerancing, and the surface- versus edge-coupling trade-off.
• Establish the alignment strategy — lithographically defined PIC features, precision mechanical datums, guide-pin or V-groove references — and the passive alignment capability it delivers.

Tolerance, loss, and repeatability budgeting

• Own the insertion loss budget, including mated-interface penalty, per-channel uniformity across the array, and return loss.
• Develop the tolerance stack from PIC feature placement through package assembly to plug geometry using statistical methods, with a per-port loss distribution as the deliverable.
• Specify and demonstrate repeatability across mate and demate cycles, and interchangeability across plug units and suppliers.
• Quantify positional and angular sensitivity and define the budget the mechanical design must hold.

High-volume manufacturing readiness

• Qualify reflow survivability of the on-package element and compatibility with the assembly flows our OSATs operate.
• Define automated mating requirements: insertion force, blind-mate behavior, retention, and hands-off assembly tooling.
• Establish Cpk on passive placement and coupling loss, with associated SPC limits, yield reporting, and failure taxonomy.
• Maintain the per-port cost and cycle-time model covering alignment, mating and cleaning time, rework, and connector BOM.

Contamination control and serviceability

• Define the contamination control strategy: dust caps, handling protocol, cleaning process and tooling, inspection criteria, and particle-size sensitivity for the selected beam geometry.
• Define serviceability requirements: authorized personnel, permitted mating cycles, required training and tooling, and diagnostic criteria distinguishing contamination from mechanical damage.
• Define the rework and RMA flow for the optical interface.

Reliability and qualification

• Qualify the mated interface.
• Characterize insertion loss drift across mating cycles and environmental exposure.
• Conduct root-cause analysis of degradation across coupling optics, alignment features, latch mechanics, and contamination.

Required Qualifications

• BS/MS/PhD in Optical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Physics, Materials Science, or equivalent practical experience.
• 6+ years in optical or photonic packaging or optical interconnect, including ownership of an optical interface taken from development into production or pilot production.
• Direct experience with fiber-optic connector technology: ferrules and guide-pin alignment, expanded-beam or lensed interfaces, and mate/demate qualification.
• Tolerance stack analysis and GD&T for sub-micron optical interfaces, including statistical rather than worst-case methods.
• Working knowledge of fiber-to-chip coupling physics: mode field matching, collimation and beam expansion, angular and lateral sensitivity, polarization effects, and return loss.
• Hands-on optical metrology: tunable sources, power meters, insertion and return loss measurement, and interferometric or confocal inspection of interfaces.
• Experience qualifying an optical interface against connector reliability standards.
• Willingness to work in both laboratory and production environments, and professional English across distributed sites and time zones.

Preferred Qualifications

• Detachable or pluggable optical interfaces for co-packaged optics, on-board optics, or mid-board optical modules.
• Passive alignment using lithographically defined features; wafer-level optics; micro-lens array design or integration.
• Reflow-survivable optical assemblies, including interfaces qualified through a 260 °C profile.
• Precision manufacturing processes for connector hardware: ferrule molding, precision metal stamping or forming, glass forming, or micro-machining.
• Lens design and tolerancing (Zemax, CODE V, or equivalent).
• Silicon photonics: surface and grating couplers, facet preparation, and PIC-side alignment feature definition.
• Particle and contamination control in optical assembly environments.
• Active alignment process development experience.