Hardware Engineering Technical Leader

Cisco Systems, Inc.; Holmdel Township (NJ); On-site; USD 180,000 - 280,000; Full time

Job summary

Acacia, a Cisco company, is seeking a Senior Photonics Packaging Engineer to join the Packaging Engineering team. You will work with Silicon Photonics development to drive new product designs, ensure smooth transfer to manufacturing, and address prototyping and high‑volume production challenges with a focus on performance, reliability, cost efficiency, and scalability.

Lead cross‑functional collaboration with design, test, reliability, and manufacturing teams to improve manufacturability and

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Physics, Mechanical Engineering, Materials Science, or related field with 12+ years of experience, or Masters + 8 years of related experience, or PhD + 5 years of related experience.
• 8+ years of experience in back‑end wafer processing, with expertise in materials characterization, failure analysis, IC packaging materials, and semiconductor packaging manufacturing processes.
• Experience managing overseas contract manufacturers, leading cross‑functional teams to resolve manufacturing issues, and delivering consistent results in high‑volume production environments.

Responsibilities

• Lead technical ownership of optical transceiver assembly process development, with a focus on silicon photonics packaging using advanced manufacturing technologies.
• Develop high‑volume, highly automated, and cost‑effective manufacturing processes that meet performance, scalability, reliability, and cost objectives.
• Drive the development and optimization of 2D/2.5D/3D wafer‑level packaging processes, including flip‑chip wafer‑level bonding, Cu pillar (CuP), C3/C4 bumping, and Through‑Silicon Via (TSV) integration.
• Design and implement Design of Experiments (DOE) to optimize process capability, throughput, yield, and operating windows, while leading technology transfer to manufacturing and contract manufacturers through comprehensive documentation and operational handoff.
• Serve as the in‑house technical expert for wafer‑level packaging and mechanical assembly automation equipment, including software integration and electronic hardware interfaces.
• Partner cross‑functionally with design, test, reliability, and manufacturing teams to improve product manufacturability, testability, quality, and production readiness.

Skills

Wafer-level packaging

Silicon photonics packaging

DOE / process optimization

Cross-functional leadership

Manufacturing transfer

Education

Bachelor’s degree in Physics/Mechanical Engineering/Materials Science

Master’s degree

PhD

Job description

Meet the Team

Acacia, a Cisco company, is a market leader in high-speed coherent optical transceivers and a pioneer in coherent pluggable transceiver technology. Its coherent solutions are deployed by every major hyperscale cloud provider, enabling data center interconnects spanning from a few kilometers to thousands of kilometers, as well as long‑haul and submarine networks.
The rapid growth of AI infrastructure has significantly increased demand for Acacia’s coherent transceivers. Beyond terrestrial networking, Acacia’s technology is also being adopted for space applications and is expected to play an increasing role within data centers as interconnect speeds continue to scale.
In addition to its leadership in coherent optics, Acacia is expanding into the PAM4 client optics market and is well positioned to become a leading provider of PAM4 solutions, including next‑generation 1.6T PAM4 DSPs.

Your Impact

As a Senior Photonics Packaging Engineer on the Acacia Packaging Engineering team, you will join a multidisciplinary group of optical, mechanical, electrical, and manufacturing engineers focused on developing next‑generation optical communication products. In this role, you will work closely with Acacia's Silicon Photonics (PIC) development team to drive new product designs and collaborate with Product Engineering and Quality teams to ensure seamless transfer into manufacturing. You will play a critical role in the design, development, qualification, and production ramp of advanced transceivers that leverage silicon photonics and ground breaking DSP technology. The position also involves resolving technical challenges encountered during prototyping, product qualification, and high‑volume manufacturing while driving solutions that deliver exceptional performance, reliability, cost efficiency, scalability, and manufacturability.

Additional responsibilities include:

• Lead technical ownership of optical transceiver assembly process development, with a focus on silicon photonics packaging using advanced manufacturing technologies.
• Develop high‑volume, highly automated, and cost‑effective manufacturing processes that meet performance, scalability, reliability, and cost objectives.
• Drive the development and optimization of 2D/2.5D/3D wafer‑level packaging processes, including flip‑chip wafer‑level bonding, Cu pillar (CuP), C3/C4 bumping, and Through‑Silicon Via (TSV) integration.
• Design and implement Design of Experiments (DOE) to optimize process capability, throughput, yield, and operating windows, while leading technology transfer to manufacturing and contract manufacturers through comprehensive documentation and operational handoff.
• Serve as the in‑house technical expert for wafer‑level packaging and mechanical assembly automation equipment, including software integration and electronic hardware interfaces.
• Partner cross‑functionally with design, test, reliability, and manufacturing teams to improve product manufacturability, testability, quality, and production readiness.

Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Physics, Mechanical Engineering, Materials Science, or a related field with 12+ years of experience, or Masters + 8 years of related experience, or PhD + 5 years of related experience.
• 8+ years of experience in back‑end wafer processing, with expertise in materials characterization, failure analysis, IC packaging materials, and semiconductor packaging manufacturing processes.
• Experience managing overseas contract manufacturers, leading cross‑functional teams to resolve manufacturing issues, and delivering consistent results in high‑volume production environments.

Preferred Qualifications

• Knowledge of silicon photonics (SiPh/PIC) packaging, including mechanical, thermal, optical, and RF design considerations.
• Experience in the design, development, and manufacturing of silicon photonics optoelectronic multi‑chip module (OE‑MCM) packaging.
• Expertise in transceiver optical assembly processes, including free‑space optics and fibre‑optic assembly techniques, with a focus on scalable manufacturing solutions.
• Experience in leading cross‑functional, multidisciplinary teams in fast‑paced, collaborative development environments.
• Familiarity with the operating principles of photonic devices used in coherent optical communication systems is an advantage.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills, with the ability to effectively collaborate across technical and business teams.

Why Cisco?

At Cisco, we’re revolutionizing how data and infrastructure connect and protect organizations in the AI era – and beyond. We’ve been innovating fearlessly for 40 years to create solutions that power how humans and technology work together across the physical and digital worlds. These solutions provide customers with unparalleled security, visibility, and insights across the entire digital footprint.

Fueled by the depth and breadth of our technology, we experiment and create meaningful solutions. Add to that our worldwide network of doers and experts, and you’ll see that the opportunities to grow and build are limitless. We work as a team, collaborating with empathy to make really big things happen on a global scale. Because our solutions are everywhere, our impact is everywhere.

We are Cisco, and our power starts with you.

Message to applicants applying to work in the U.S. and/or Canada:

The starting salary range posted for this position is $191,400.00 to $281,400.00 and reflects the projected salary range for new hires in this position in U.S. and/or Canada locations, not including incentive compensation*, equity, or benefits.

Individual pay is determined by the candidate’s hiring location, market conditions, job‑related skillset, experience, qualifications, education, certifications, and/or training. The full salary range for certain locations is listed below. For locations not listed below, the recruiter can share more details about compensation for the role in your location during the hiring process.

U.S. employees are offered benefits, subject to Cisco’s plan eligibility rules, which include medical, dental and vision insurance, a 401(k) plan with a Cisco matching contribution, paid parental leave, short and long‑term disability coverage, and basic life insurance. Please see the Cisco careers site to discover more benefits and perks. Employees may be eligible to receive grants of Cisco restricted stock units, which vest following continued employment with Cisco for defined periods of time.

U.S. employees are eligible for paid time away as described below, subject to Cisco’s policies:

• 10 paid holidays per full calendar year, plus 1 floating holiday for non‑exempt employees
• 1 paid day off for employee’s birthday, paid year‑end holiday shutdown, and 4 paid days off for personal wellness determined by Cisco
• Non‑exempt employees** receive 16 days of paid vacation time per full calendar year, accrued at rate of 4.92 hours per pay period for full‑time employees
• Exempt employees participate in Cisco’s flexible vacation time off program, which has no defined limit on how much vacation time eligible employees may use (subject to availability and some business limitations)
• 80 hours of sick time off provided on hire date and each January 1st thereafter, and up to 80 hours of unused sick time carried forward from one calendar year to the next
• Additional paid time away may be requested to deal with critical or emergency issues for family members
• Optional 10 paid days per full calendar year to volunteer

For non‑sales roles, employees are also eligible to earn annual bonuses subject to Cisco’s policies.

Employees on sales plans earn performance‑based incentive pay on top of their base salary, which is split between quota and non‑quota components, subject to the applicable Cisco plan. For quota‑based incentive pay, Cisco typically pays as follows:

• .75% of incentive target for each 1% of revenue attainment up to 50% of quota;
• 1.5% of incentive target for each 1% of attainment between 50% and 75%;
• 1% of incentive target for each 1% of attainment between 75% and 100%; and
• Once performance exceeds 100% attainment, incentive rates are at or above 1% for each 1% of attainment with no cap on incentive compensation.

For non‑quota‑based sales performance elements such as strategic sales objectives, Cisco may pay 0% up to 125% of target. Cisco sales plans do not have a minimum threshold of performance for sales incentive compensation to be paid.

The applicable full salary ranges for this position, by specific state, are listed below:

New York City Metro Area:

$191,400.00 - $323,600.00

Non‑Metro New York state & Washington state:

$176,100.00 - $287,900.00

* For quota‑based sales roles on Cisco’s sales plan, the ranges provided in this posting include base pay and sales target incentive compensation combined.

** Employees in Illinois, whether exempt or non‑exempt, will participate in a unique time off program to meet local requirements.