Photonic Design Engineer

Location: Europe

Employment: Full-time

Level: Engineer / Senior Engineer / Principal

We are looking for Photonic Design Engineers to develop next-generation photonic integrated circuits for applications including optical communications, AI/HPC, sensing and quantum technologies.

You will work across photonic device design, simulation, layout and fabrication, taking devices and circuits from initial concept toward manufactured and characterised PICs.

Responsibilities

• Design active and/or passive integrated photonic components
• Develop waveguides, couplers, splitters, resonators, interferometers, modulators, detectors andother photonic building blocks
• Perform electromagnetic and photonic simulations using FDTD, EME and circuit-level modelling
• Optimise device performance for optical loss, bandwidth, coupling efficiency, manufacturability and tolerance
• Develop PIC layouts and integrate components into larger photonic circuits
• Work with foundry PDKs and fabrication design rules
• Support DRC, design verification and tape-out activities
• Interface with foundries and fabrication partners
• Develop Python-based design and simulation automation
• Analyse characterization data and feed experimental results back into future designs
• Collaborate with characterization, packaging, electronics, process and systems teams

Relevant Technology Platforms

Experience may come from one or more of:

• Silicon photonics / SOI
• Silicon nitride
• TFLN / LNOI
• InP / III-V photonics
• Heterogeneous or hybrid photonic integration
• Quantum photonics
• Optical communications
• Photonic computing
• Integrated lasers
• High-speed electro-optic devices

Relevant Tools

Experience with tools such as:

• Ansys Lumerical
• COMSOL
• Tidy3D
• Photon Design
• Synopsys photonic tools
• Luceda IPKISS
• Nazca
• KLayout
• Cadence
• Python

Requirements

• MSc or PhD in Photonics, Electrical Engineering, Applied Physics or a related discipline
• Strong understanding of integrated optics and photonic device physics
• Hands-on experience designing integrated photonic components or circuits
• Experience with electromagnetic simulation such as FDTD or EME
• Strong analytical and problem-solving ability
• Python or comparable scientific programming experience

For senior positions, we are particularly interested in candidates who have personally taken PIC designs through layout, PDK/DRC verification, foundry interaction and tape-out

Experience with commercial product development or high-volume manufacturing is advantageous but not required for every position.