Photonic CAD/PDK Automation Engineer

OpenLight Photonics Inc.; Santa Clara, Northern (CA, KY); Hybrid; USD 130,000 - 230,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

ISOs

Insurance

401k matching

Unlimited vacation

Spot bonuses

Hybrid schedule

Job summary

OpenLight Photonics is seeking a software engineer to join the Design Enablement team, central to turning photonic chip designs into manufacturable mask data and maintaining automated mask build workflows. You will own PDK automation, mask release, and physical verification tooling, collaborating with process engineers and PIC architects in a hands‑on role.

The role offers a hybrid schedule (three days in office), with a salary range of $130,000–$230,000 annually, plus ISOs, generous insurance,

Qualifications

• BS/MS in EE, CS, Applied Physics, or related field, or equivalent practical experience.
• Strong Python skills and solid software engineering fundamentals.
• Experience with version control, CI/CD pipelines, and Agile practices.
• Exposure to EDA tool flows or scripting interfaces (SKILL, Tcl, Synopsys ICV, KLayout, IPKISS, GDSFactory) or ability to pick up domain tooling quickly.
• Strong problem solving, communication, organizational, and interpersonal skills.

Responsibilities

• Develop and maintain automated mask build workflows that assemble PIC designs into GDS artwork, reproducibly and on schedule.
• Build and release the OpenLight PDK: device libraries, parameterized cells, compact models, and symbol/schematic views across our EDA platforms.
• Own physical verification infrastructure.
• Stand up CI/CD pipelines, regression suites, and automated QA to maintain a robust PDK and mask release process.
• Partner with EDA vendors to bring up and validate our PDK on their platforms.
• Work alongside process engineers, device designers, and PIC Architects to turn manual, error‑prone steps into automated workflows.
• Monitor for quality escapes, perform root cause analysis, and drive improvements to prevent recurrence.

Skills

Python

Version control

CI/CD pipelines

Agile development

Education

B.S. or M.S. in Electrical Engineering, Computer Science, Applied Physics, or related discipline

Tools

SKILL

Tcl

Synopsys ICV

KLayout

IPKISS

GDSFactory

Job description

OpenLight Photonics is seeking a software engineer to join the Design Enablement team, central to turning photonic chip designs into manufacturable mask data and maintaining automated mask build workflows. You will own PDK automation, mask release, and physical verification tooling, collaborating with process engineers and PIC architects in a hands‑on role.

The role offers a hybrid schedule (three days in office), with a salary range of $130,000–$230,000 annually, plus ISOs, generous insurance,