Pioneering Photonics Test & Automation Engineer

K2 Space Corporation; Los Angeles (CA); On-site; USD 150,000 - 220,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Equity in the company

Comprehensive benefits package

Job summary

K2 Space Corporation is building the largest and highest-power satellites, with a photonics-focused founding team. We seek a Photonics Test & Automation Engineer to define how K2 tests photonics, build the lab, and develop software to turn PICs into reliable data for product generations.

You will own photonic test from first-silicon bring-up through production screening, collaborating with PIC designers, packaging, and post-silicon validation teams, and stand up automated test stations in year

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 through shared instrument control, synchronization, and data.
• Characterize passive and active photonic devices including high-speed electro-optic measurements.
• Own design-for-test standards and correlate measurements with simulation, feeding them into the team's design automation and modeling flow.
• Build portable, automated setups for in-situ measurements during radiation, thermal-vacuum, and burn-in campaigns.
• Scale test from one device to many and hand off to production at constellation volume.
• Mentor engineers and technicians, and set lab standards for safety, calibration, and documentation.

Skills

Photonic test

Python automation

Free-space optics

Mentoring

Education

Bachelor's degree in EE/physics/optics or related

Tools

FormFactor

MPI

ficonTEC

Job description

K2 Space Corporation is building the largest and highest-power satellites, with a photonics-focused founding team. We seek a Photonics Test & Automation Engineer to define how K2 tests photonics, build the lab, and develop software to turn PICs into reliable data for product generations.

You will own photonic test from first-silicon bring-up through production screening, collaborating with PIC designers, packaging, and post-silicon validation teams, and stand up automated test stations in year