PIC Test & Characterization Engineer

Opticore; Berkeley (CA); On-site; USD 120,000 - 160,000; Full time

Job summary

Opticore, a Berkeley-based company, is developing a photonic computing system that accelerates AI workloads with speed and energy efficiency. The role focuses on testing and characterizing photonic ICs, building automated measurement workflows, and collaborating with design and fabrication teams.

The ideal candidate has hands-on lab experience with optical test equipment, strong Python skills, and a deep understanding of silicon photonics to connect measurements with design targets.

Qualifications

• Experience testing and characterizing photonic integrated circuits or integrated optical devices.
• Strong understanding of silicon photonics or related platforms.
• Hands-on experience with optical test equipment (tunables, power meters, OSA, VNAs).
• 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.
• Ability to connect measured device behavior to photonic designs and physics.
• Familiarity with PIC fabrication layouts, PDKs, or device simulation (desirable).
• Hands-on lab work and troubleshooting test setups.

Responsibilities

• Develop and execute test plans for photonic integrated circuits and devices.
• Perform optical and electrical measurements of PICs and components.
• Characterize devices including waveguides, modulators, detectors, and resonators.
• Build automated test setups for wafer-level and packaged devices.
• 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 loss, coupling, bandwidth, extinction ratio, responsivity, insertion loss.
• 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.

Skills

Python

Optical test equipment

Fiber-to-chip coupling

Data analysis & visualization

Laboratory hands-on

PIC platforms knowledge

Wafer probing / packaging

Troubleshooting test setups

Tools

Lumerical

COMSOL

Job description

Conventional chips are hitting a wall, and as AI inference demand grows, power consumption is becoming the single biggest constraint on deployment at scale.

Opticore is developing a photonic computing system that accelerates artificial intelligence workloads with exceptional speed and energy efficiency.

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

Required 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

Preferred Qualifications

• 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

We're reviewing applications on a rolling basis and will reach out to shortlisted candidates.