Photonics Test Engineer

Photonics Test Engineer

On-site | Berkeley, CA | 5 days per week

Up to 250k base + equity

I’m working with a well-funded photonic computing startup building optical processors for next-generation AI workloads.

The company is developing a tightly integrated platform spanning photonics, electronic ICs, packaging and system architecture. They are now looking for a Photonics Test Engineer to own hands-on test development and characterization across that hardware.

This role is focused on the physical testing strategy, not only test automation. You’ll build measurement setups, select instruments and fixtures, develop test plans, interpret results and use the data to diagnose hardware performance and reliability issues.

You’ll work on problems such as:

• Building optical and electrical measurement setups
• Characterizing photonic devices, submodules and modules
• Selecting instruments, fixtures and calibration methods
• Developing test plans to isolate failure mechanisms
• Conducting reliability and temperature-dependent characterization
• Automating measurements and data-analysis workflows
• Turning test findings into improvements across devices, packaging and operating conditions
• Working closely with photonics, electronics and packaging engineers.

Looking for engineers who have:

• Hands-on testing experience with photonic, optoelectronic or closely related integrated hardware
• Personally built and operated physical test setups
• Selected and used relevant instruments directly
• Developed characterization plans rather than only executing predefined procedures
• Diagnosed hardware problems using experimental measurements
• Experience beyond isolated device testing, ideally involving submodules, modules or systems
• The ability to combine manual measurements with useful automation

The exact technical platform and degree level are flexible. Practical testing depth and ownership matter most. Experience with module-level thermal verification is a valuable additional signal.

This is an opportunity to take broad ownership inside a small, technically deep team working at the intersection of photonics, electronics and AI hardware.

Worth a confidential chat?