Coherent Systems Architect - Optical Modem Modeling and Specification

NOKIA; San Jose (CA); On-site; USD 100,000 - 130,000; Full time

Job summary

A multinational telecommunications company based in California is seeking a Coherent Optical System Architect to innovate coherent optical systems. The ideal candidate will have a PhD in Electrical Engineering or Applied Physics and a solid understanding of optical communication systems, along with experience in digital signal processing and coherent communications. Responsibilities include developing advanced optical systems and evaluating signal processing algorithms, requiring both technical knowledge and collaborative interaction with design teams.

Qualifications

• PhD with 0-3 years of experience in optical communications.
• Fundamental understanding of DWDM transmission systems.
• Experience with coherent communications systems and coding algorithms.

Responsibilities

• Develop and optimize next-generation coherent modalities.
• Evaluate digital signal processing algorithms and their impact.
• Assist in design and optimize performance-critical aspects.

Skills

Optical communication systems

Signal analysis and processing

Mathematical modeling

Coherent communications systems

Programming in Matlab/Python

Education

PhD in Electrical Engineering or Applied Physics

Tools

Matlab

Python

VB.net

C

Job description

Nokia is seeking a Coherent Optical System Architect to join our Optical Systems Group (OSG). The engineer will be responsible for contributing to the development of leading coherent MODEMs based on Nokia's next-generation coherent photonic integrated circuits (PICs).

Responsibilities

• Nokia's next generation communications platforms are defined, developed, and optimized based on sophisticated, end-to-end simulation platforms that are continuously fed with measurements of early prototypes and mature hardware.
• As the design space of modern optical engines is infinitely vast compared to prototype development and timescales of semiconductor device fabrication, your simulation results will guide our design and lead key design decisions from initial product definition to early design phases of MODEM development to configuration optimization in the final stages of manufacturing and production. This requires a detailed and deep understanding of all MODEM impairments in the digital, analog and optical domain.
• You will be evaluating the effectiveness of state-of-the-art digital signal processing algorithms, estimating the impact of transistor-level design choices in analog circuits and predicting the MODEM performance penalties of integrated optical components such as Mach-Zehnder modulators and semiconductor optical amplifiers. Furthermore, you will be projecting the reach of our optical engines based on various linear and nonlinear impairments of the optical fiber channel and deployed line-systems.
• Through frequent interaction with the relevant design teams, you will assist in design, finding relationships between low level hardware specifications and its system level impact and optimizing performance-critical aspects to maximize overall modem performance.
• Results will be presented internally and documented as electrical and optical performance specifications for next-generation platforms.
• Some external and customer-facing interactions may be required, such as expected improvements of our next-generation engines on customer networks and contributing to forums discussing multi-source vendor agreements.

Expertise on all points simultaneously is not required.

Qualifications

• PhD in Electrical Engineering or Applied Physics with 0-3 years of industrial or academic experience in optical communications, photonics, high speed electronics or systems.
• Fundamental understanding of optical communication systems, DWDM transmission systems, fiber transmission penalties, photonic integrated components, electronic (integrated) circuits, and signal analysis and processing.
• Experience and a strong mathematical understanding of the analytical and numerical modelling of system-level optical communication systems and components.
• Extensive understanding of coherent communications systems, including experience with QPSK, 16QAM, and 64QAM, as well as coding and forward error correction algorithms.
• Experience characterizing high-speed RF and mm-wave interconnects, amplifiers, and components such as S-parameter, jitter, ENOB, nonlinear compression and their system implications.
• Experience in the characterization and modeling of various linear and nonlinear signal impairments, e.g., filtering, noise, nonlinear amplitude and phase distortions, dispersion etc.
• Programming experience in Matlab, Python, VB.net, or C desired.