Photonics Test Engineer

Lumicity; California; On-site; USD 95,000 - 140,000; Full time

Job summary

Lumicity is seeking a hands-on photonics test engineer in California to develop and execute test and characterization plans for photonic integrated circuits and devices. You will perform optical/electrical measurements, assemble automated test setups, and analyze results to drive design iterations.

The role requires strong Python skills for data acquisition and visualization, experience with optical test equipment, and the ability to troubleshoot complex test benches in a lab environment.

Qualifications

• Experience testing and characterizing photonic integrated circuits or integrated optical devices
• Strong understanding of silicon photonics, silicon nitride photonics, or related integrated photonics platforms
• Hands-on experience with optical test equipment such as tunable lasers, optical power meters, OSA, VNAs, photodetectors, and optical/electrical probes
• Experience with fiber-to-chip coupling, optical alignment, wafer probing, or packaged photonic devices
• Strong Python skills for test automation, data acquisition, analysis, and visualization
• Experience interpreting experimental data and connecting measured device behavior to underlying photonic designs and physics
• Familiarity with PIC fabrication, layouts, tapeouts, PDKs, or device simulation is highly desirable
• Ability to work hands-on in a laboratory environment and troubleshoot complex optical/electrical test setups

Responsibilities

• Develop and execute test and characterization plans for photonic integrated circuits and individual photonic devices
• Perform optical and electrical measurements of fabricated PICs and components
• Characterize devices including waveguides, grating couplers, modulators, photodetectors, resonators, switches, and other active/passive photonic components
• Build and improve automated test setups for wafer-level and packaged-device characterization
• Develop Python-based measurement, data acquisition, analysis, and visualization workflows
• Perform fiber-to-chip coupling, optical alignment, probing, and other hands-on photonic measurements
• Analyze device performance including optical loss, coupling efficiency, bandwidth, extinction ratio, responsivity, insertion loss, and related parameters
• Work closely with PIC designers to compare measured performance against simulations and design targets
• Support debugging, root-cause analysis, and design iterations based on experimental results
• Collaborate with fabrication, packaging, electrical, and systems teams to improve device and test performance
• Help establish repeatable characterization methodologies and test infrastructure as the technology moves toward higher-volume experimentation and production

Skills

PIC testing

Silicon photonics

Optical alignment

Python scripting

Data analysis

Wafer probing

Test automation

Tools

Tunable lasers

OSA

VNAs

Optical power meters

Electrical probes

Lumerical

COMSOL

Job description

• Develop and execute test and characterization plans for photonic integrated circuits and individual photonic devices
• Perform optical and electrical measurements of fabricated PICs and components
• Characterize devices including waveguides, grating couplers, modulators, photodetectors, resonators, switches, and other active/passive photonic components
• Build and improve automated test setups for wafer-level and packaged-device characterization
• Develop Python-based measurement, data acquisition, analysis, and visualization workflows
• Perform fiber-to-chip coupling, optical alignment, probing, and other hands-on photonic measurements
• Analyze device performance including optical loss, coupling efficiency, bandwidth, extinction ratio, responsivity, insertion loss, and related parameters
• Work closely with PIC designers to compare measured performance against simulations and design targets
• Support debugging, root-cause analysis, and design iterations based on experimental results
• Collaborate with fabrication, packaging, electrical, and systems teams to improve device and test performance
• Help establish repeatable characterization methodologies and test infrastructure as the technology moves toward higher-volume experimentation and production

Qualifications

• Experience testing and characterizing photonic integrated circuits or integrated optical devices
• Strong understanding of silicon photonics, silicon nitride photonics, or related integrated photonics platforms
• Hands-on experience with optical test equipment such as tunable lasers, optical power meters, OSA, VNAs, photodetectors, and optical/electrical probes
• Experience with fiber-to-chip coupling, optical alignment, wafer probing, or packaged photonic devices
• Strong Python skills for test automation, data acquisition, analysis, and visualization
• Experience interpreting experimental data and connecting measured device behavior to underlying photonic designs and physics
• Familiarity with PIC fabrication, layouts, tapeouts, PDKs, or device simulation is highly desirable
• Ability to work hands-on in a laboratory environment and troubleshoot complex optical/electrical test setups

Nice to Have

• Experience with thin-film lithium niobate (TFLN) or lithium-niobate photonics
• Experience with silicon nitride (SiN) PICs
• Experience with wafer-level automated testing or high-throughput photonic characterization
• Experience characterizing high-speed electro-optic devices
• Experience with Lumerical, COMSOL, or other photonic simulation tools
• Experience designing PIC test structures or contributing to PIC layouts
• Experience taking devices from design and fabrication through characterization and iteration