Lead Photonics Test & Automation Engineer for Space

Telemetry Today LLC; Los Angeles (CA); On-site; USD 150,000 - 220,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Equity in company

Medical/dental/vision coverage

Paid time off

Job summary

K2 Space is seeking the first Photonics Test & Automation Engineer to shape how we test photonics across wafers, dies, and modules. You will build the lab, develop Python-based instrument control, and define a scalable data pipeline used by design, packaging, and reliability teams.

You will stand up automated PIC test stations, connect testbeds to optical Chan systems, and mentor engineers while ensuring safety, calibration, and documentation standards in a high-performance space environment.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in electrical engineering, physics, optics, or a related technical field.
• 5+ years of hands-on experience testing photonic integrated circuits or optoelectronic components (probing, fiber alignment, and optical test equipment).
• Built automated test stations from scratch, with Python for instrument control, test frameworks, and data analysis.
• Hands-on free-space optics (alignment, beam characterization, cameras or wavefront sensors).

Responsibilities

• Design, build, and own automated wafer-, die-, and module-level PIC test stations, including optical and RF probing, fiber-array alignment, and swept-laser measurements.
• Develop modular, reusable test automation software and instrument drivers in Python, with version control, CI, and AI-assisted tooling, and a shared data pipeline used by design, packaging, and reliability engineers.
• Interface PIC test stations with custom free-space optical testbeds (beam delivery and steering, spatial light modulators and phase screens, cameras and wavefront sensors) through shared instrument control, synchronization, and data.
• Characterize passive and active photonic devices (waveguides, couplers, filters, modulators, photodetectors, and heaters) including high-speed electro-optic measurements.
• Own design-for-test standards (test-structure library, probe and fiber-array conventions); correlate measurements with simulation, feed them into the team's design automation and modeling flow, and maintain statistical process control and gauge R&R.
• Build portable, automated setups for in-situ measurements during radiation, thermal-vacuum, and burn-in campaigns with K2's reliability and radiation-effects engineers.
• Scale test from one device to many (parallel test, test-time reduction, and operator procedures) and hand off to production at constellation volume.
• Mentor engineers and technicians, and set lab standards for safety, calibration, and documentation.

Skills

Hands-on photonic IC testing

Python for instrument control

Lab automation experience

Education

Bachelor's degree in electrical engineering/physics/optics

Tools

FormFactor photonic probers

MPI

ficonTEC

Job description

K2 Space is seeking the first Photonics Test & Automation Engineer to shape how we test photonics across wafers, dies, and modules. You will build the lab, develop Python-based instrument control, and define a scalable data pipeline used by design, packaging, and reliability teams.

You will stand up automated PIC test stations, connect testbeds to optical Chan systems, and mentor engineers while ensuring safety, calibration, and documentation standards in a high-performance space environment.