Senior Photonics Applications Engineering Lead - San Jose

Svitla Systems, Inc.; United States; On-site; USD 150,000 - 210,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Remote or office flexibility

Bonuses for writing articles and talks

Free tech webinars and meetups

Regular corporate online activities

Friendly, supportive team

Job summary

Svitla Inc. is seeking an Applications Engineering Manager to build and lead a photonics test applications team in San Jose, CA.

You will serve as the senior technical bridge between customer needs and the client’s photonics test products, owning team delivery and customer relationships to drive adoption and growth. The role fits an experienced applications engineer stepping into leadership, with deep lab work possible but a focus on team development, technical direction, and regional customer

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Photonics, Optical Engineering, Physics, Electrical Engineering, or related field (Master's preferred, or equivalent experience).
• 8+ years in optical R&D, design, testing, or applications engineering with customer-facing work.
• People-management or proven technical leadership readiness to manage a team.
• Background in high-speed optical communications test: optical transceivers, silicon photonics, and optical links.

Responsibilities

• Grow, coach, and manage a team of applications engineers.
• Act as the senior technical contact for customers using the photonics test products.
• Own the team's delivery: installation, calibration, troubleshooting, training, and customer enablement.
• Build lasting customer relationships that support adoption and account growth.
• Guide product development together with engineering and marketing.
• Manage key customer design-in activity.
• Coordinate with regional applications and sales teams, and pass market feedback to R&D and product marketing.

Skills

Leadership

Customer relationships

Test automation

C/C++/Python

Photonics testing

High-speed optics

Education

Bachelor's degree in Photonics/Optical/Physics/Electrical Eng

Master's degree preferred or equivalent experience

Tools

Optical spectrum analyzers

Power meters

BERTs

Job description

Svitla Inc. is seeking an Applications Engineering Manager to build and lead a photonics test applications team in San Jose, CA.

You will serve as the senior technical bridge between customer needs and the client’s photonics test products, owning team delivery and customer relationships to drive adoption and growth. The role fits an experienced applications engineer stepping into leadership, with deep lab work possible but a focus on team development, technical direction, and regional customer