Optical Architect for Next-Gen HAMR Head Design

Headway Technologies; Milpitas (CA); On-site; USD 121,000 - 178,000; Full time

Job summary

Headway Technologies in Milpitas, CA seeks an Optical Engineer to design, innovate, and mature advanced optical delivery systems for HAMR heads. You will lead design concepts, perform silicon photonics and plasmonics work, and collaborate with process, test, metrology, and product teams to translate optical ideas into scalable solutions.

The role emphasizes modeling, experimentation, and validation to advance HAMR technology, with strong emphasis on manufacturability and reliability in a

Qualifications

• Master’s degree in Optical Engineering or Electrical Engineering; PhD preferred.
• Two years of experience in optics, plasmonics, silicon photonics, optical chip design, or related field.
• Knowledge of laser package design and assembly.
• Hands-on optical testing (transmittance, reflectance, and far-field diffraction).

Responsibilities

• Develop and evaluate innovative optical design concepts for HAMR light delivery systems (waveguides, tapers, couplers, mode converters, surface plasmon excitation).
• Perform advanced optical simulations using Lumerical, Tidy3D, and COMSOL to model propagation, coupling, loss, and design tradeoffs.
• Apply inverse design and computational photonics to improve coupling efficiency and field confinement.
• Investigate and optimize new optical architectures to improve energy delivery to NFT and reduce optical loss.
• Maintain optical instrumentation and develop metrologies for HAMR heads and components.
• Collaborate with process engineering to mature concepts toward product integration.
• Coordinate with testing to characterize laser diode, light path, and NFT performance; translate findings into design changes.
• Conduct failure analysis (FMEA) and analyze data to guide HAMR head design roadmaps.

Skills

Optical design

Plasmonics

Silicon photonics

Optical chip design

Hands-on optical testing

AI tools for data analysis

Modeling & simulations

Independent work / collaboration

Communication

Education

Master’s degree in Optical Engineering or Electrical Engineering

PhD preferred

Tools

Lumerical

Tidy3D

COMSOL

TEM

EELS

EDS

SIMS

XPS

Microsoft Office

Job description

Headway Technologies in Milpitas, CA seeks an Optical Engineer to design, innovate, and mature advanced optical delivery systems for HAMR heads. You will lead design concepts, perform silicon photonics and plasmonics work, and collaborate with process, test, metrology, and product teams to translate optical ideas into scalable solutions.

The role emphasizes modeling, experimentation, and validation to advance HAMR technology, with strong emphasis on manufacturability and reliability in a