Field Application Engineer- Optical Connectivity

Flint Hills Resources; Fremont (CA); On-site; USD 170,000 - 190,000; Full time

Job summary

Molex in the San Francisco Bay area (Fremont) seeks a Field Applications Engineer for optical connectivity in the datacom space. You will lead technical engagements, drive design-in opportunities, and support deployments across high-density datacenter environments.

The role emphasizes customer collaboration, architectural guidance, and end-to-end solutions from connectors to panels. 5+ years in electronics/datacom is preferred; Bay Area presence is expected.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in electrical/optical/related field or equivalent.
• Minimum 5 years of engineering experience in electronics/datacom/optical connectivity.
• Proven experience interfacing with customers in a technical role such as application or systems engineering.
• Solid understanding of hyperscale datacenter architecture and optical deployment models.
• Ability to manage multiple projects and work independently with stakeholders.

Responsibilities

• Partner with customer engineering teams and Molex Sales to secure new design wins and build a convertible Salesforce pipeline.
• Establish strong technical relationships with engineering, system architecture and deployment stakeholders at targeted datacom customers.
• Deliver innovative application solutions using Molex optical connectivity products across modules and end-to-end infrastructure.
• Support customer deployments across rack-, row-, and pod-level datacenter topologies, ensuring performance and reliability.
• Collaborate with internal teams to resolve design-in challenges related to optical connectivity.
• Define, validate, and optimize optical infrastructure from compute to fiber plant, including polarity and capacity planning.
• Act as a trusted technical advisor to enhance deployments and inform future datacenter architecture decisions.
• Develop customer-facing technical documentation and supporting materials.

Skills

Customer interfacing

Hyperscale datacenter knowledge

Salesforce experience

SAP experience

CAD modeling

System integration

Education

Bachelor’s degree in Electrical/Mechanical/Optical Engineering, Physics, or related field

Master’s degree in Electrical/Optical/related field

Tools

Salesforce

SAP

CAD software

Job description

Field Application Engineer- Optical Connectivity

Field Applications Engineer, Optical Connectivity - Datacom

Job Description

Located in the San Francisco Bay area

The Molex Sales Team in Fremont is seeking a dynamic and proactive Field Application Engineer (FAE) to lead technical engagements that enable the successful design-in and deployment of Molex optical connectivity solutions at a key strategic datacom customer. You will not only drive technical engagements with customers in targeted areas of growth but also uncover new opportunities while developing strong relationships with customer engineering. Your work will directly support the adoption of high-density optical connectivity solutions across advanced datacenter and AI infrastructure environments.

Our Team

Molex creates connections for life by enabling technologies that transform the future and improve lives. With presence in more than 40 countries, Molex offers a complete range of connectivity products, services and solutions for the data communications, medical, industrial, automotive and consumer electronics industries. Our Datacom and Specialty Solutions (DSS) team designs an extensive product line serving customers in telecommunications, datacom, hyperscalers, cloud, data center and storage applications.

What You Will Do

• Partner with customer engineering teams and Molex Sales to secure new design wins and build a convertible Salesforce pipeline that drives profitable year-over-year growth.
• Establish strong, strategic technical relationships with key engineering, system architecture, and deployment stakeholders at targeted datacom customer.
• Deliver innovative application solutions using Molex optical connectivity products, including connectors, patch cords, trunks, panels, and end-to-end infrastructure solutions.
• Support customer architecture and hardware teams in deploying optical connectivity solutions across rack-, row-, and pod-level datacenter topologies, ensuring performance, density, scalability, and reliability requirements are met.
• Collaborate with customer development, manufacturing, process, and reliability teams to resolve technical challenges related to optical connectivity design-in, installation, qualification, and deployment.
• Work with customer engineering teams to define, validate, and optimize optical infrastructure—covering trunks, patch cords, cassettes, connectors, and panels, from compute and switch platforms to the broader fiber plant, including polarity, labeling, manageability, and capacity planning.
• Act as a trusted technical advisor, providing insights and recommendations to enhance current deployments and inform future datacenter architecture decisions.
• Identify, diagnose, and resolve complex technical issues related to product integration, system compatibility, optical loss budgets, mechanical interfaces, serviceability, and deployment constraints.
• Partner with internal engineering, product management, advanced development, and sales teams to elevate and resolve critical customer issues efficiently.
• Monitor and communicate hyperscale datacenter and optical infrastructure technology trends internally to help inform roadmap development and differentiated solution strategies.
• Develop customer-facing technical documentation, application notes, and supporting materials.
• Share knowledge and collaborate with fellow FAEs and cross-functional teams across Molex’s datacenter and hyperscale ecosystem.
• Support Product Marketing by providing competitive insights, customer feedback, and market-driven requirements to influence future solutions.

Who You Are (Basic Qualifications)

• Bachelor’s Degree in Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Optical Engineering, Physics, Computer Engineering, or a related technical field.
• A minimum of 5 years of relevant engineering experience within the electronics, datacenter, or optical connectivity industry.
• Proven experience directly interfacing with customers in a technical role such as application engineering, systems engineering, or field engineering.
• Solid understanding of hyperscale datacenter architecture, networking, compute, storage, and optical infrastructure deployment models.
• Demonstrated ability to manage multiple projects, prioritize dynamically, and work independently across internal and external stakeholders.

What Will Put You Ahead

• Master’s Degree in Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Optical Engineering, Physics, or a related discipline.
• 7+ years of experience designing, qualifying, deploying, or supporting high-density connectivity or optical infrastructure solutions.
• Hands-on experience supporting or designing optical infrastructure for hyperscale data centers, including trunks, patching architectures, and panel systems.
• Knowledge of connector, cable assembly, and optical infrastructure design or manufacturing processes.
• Familiarity with datacenter topology planning, fiber routing strategies, polarity schemes, and installation best practices.
• Experience engaging directly with hyperscale customer hardware, network architecture, or datacenter deployment teams.
• Strong analytical, troubleshooting, and problem-solving skills.
• Experience using Salesforce and SAP systems.
• CAD modeling or system/mechanical integration experience.

For this role, we anticipate paying $170,000- $190,000 per year. This role is eligible for variable pay, issued as a monetary bonus or in another form.

Hiring Philosophy

All Koch companies value diversity of thought, perspectives, aptitudes, experiences, and backgrounds. We are Military Ready and Second Chance employers. Learn more about our hiring philosophy here .

Who We Are

At Koch, employees are empowered to do what they do best to make life better. Learn how our business philosophy helps employees unleash their potential while creating value for themselves and the company.

Our goal is for each employee, and their families, to live fulfilling and healthy lives. We provide essential resources and support to build and maintain physical, financial, and emotional strength - focusing on overall wellbeing so you can focus on what matters most. Our benefits plan includes - medical, dental, vision, flexible spending and health savings accounts, life insurance, ADD, disability, retirement, paid vacation/time off, educational assistance, and may also include infertility assistance, paid parental leave and adoption assistance. Specific eligibility criteria is set by the applicable Summary Plan Description, policy or guideline and benefits may vary by geographic region. If you have questions on what benefits apply to you, please speak to your recruiter.

Additionally, everyone has individual work and personal needs. We seek to enable the best work environment that helps you and the business work together to produce superior results.

Equal Opportunity Employer, including disability and protected veteran status. Except where prohibited by state law, some offers of employment are conditioned upon successfully passing a drug test. This employer uses E-Verify. Please click here for additional information. (For Illinois E-Verify information click here , aquí , or tu ).