Senior Silicon Photonics Design Engineer

As a Senior Silicon Photonics Design Engineer, you’ll take ownership of component development from concept and simulation through layout, tapeout, and characterization. You’ll have the opportunity to innovate on photonic device designs, directly influence product performance, and work closely with a multidisciplinary team in a fast-paced startup environment.

What You’ll Do:

• Design, simulate, and optimize passive and active silicon photonic components, including optical switches, waveguides, couplers, splitters, mode converters, and photodetectors.
• Develop innovative component designs to improve optical performance, including insertion loss, crosstalk, bandwidth, power consumption, and fabrication tolerance.
• Perform electromagnetic and multiphysics simulations to optimize device geometries and operating conditions.
• Develop component layouts and test structures, collaborating with layout engineers to implement and verify designs.
• Drive component development through foundry tapeouts, including design reviews, verification, and coordination with manufacturing partners.
• Analyze optical characterization data and wafer-level measurements to validate designs and guide improvements.
• Collaborate with system-level PIC designers to translate system requirements into component specifications.
• Work with foundry partners to understand process capabilities and develop robust, manufacturable designs., Lead biopharma business development across the US West Coast and Central States, acquiring pharmaceutical and biotechnology customers and expanding strategic accounts. Build and manage Salesforce pipeline, develop proposals, negotiate agreements, and close projects involving genomic assays, biomarker discovery, clinical trial assays, precision medicine, and companion diagnostics. Collaborate with scientific, commercial, and operational teams to shape customer solutions. Travel domestically and internationally approximately 30% of the time.

• Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering, Applied Physics, Photonics, or a related field, or an M.S. with significant relevant industry experience.
• Strong background in silicon photonic component design, including electromagnetic simulation and device optimization.
• Demonstrated experience designing integrated photonic devices and bringing designs through silicon photonics foundry tapeouts.
• Solid understanding of waveguide optics, photonic device physics, and semiconductor fabrication processes.
• Proficiency with photonic simulation tools such as Ansys Lumerical, Tidy3D, COMSOL, or equivalent.
• Ability to analyze experimental characterization data and translate results into design improvements.
• Strong problem-solving skills, technical independence, and ability to collaborate in a multidisciplinary team.

Nice to Have

• Experience designing silicon photonic switches, phase shifters, or advanced passive components such as MMIs, mode converters, and polarization-handling devices.
• Experience with silicon nitride waveguides, multilayer photonic integration, or heterogeneous photonic platforms.
• Experience with photonic component design across different wavelength bands, particularly O-band and C-band.
• Proficiency in Python or MATLAB for simulation automation, design optimization, and data analysis.
• Experience with wafer-level characterization, fabrication variation analysis, or statistical device performance modeling.

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What you need to know about the Colorado Tech Scene

With a business-friendly climate and research universities like CU Boulder and Colorado State, Colorado has made a name for itself as a startup ecosystem. The state boasts a skilled workforce and high quality of life thanks to its affordable housing, vibrant cultural scene and unparalleled opportunities for outdoor recreation. Colorado is also home to the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, helping cement its status as a hub for renewable energy innovation.

Key Facts About Colorado Tech

• Number of Tech Workers: 260,000; 8.5% of overall workforce (2024 CompTIA survey)
• Major Tech Employers: Lockheed Martin, Century Link, Comcast, BAE Systems, Level 3
• Key Industries: Software, artificial intelligence, aerospace, e-commerce, fintech, healthtech
• Funding Landscape: $4.9 billion in VC funding in 2024 (Pitchbook)
• Notable Investors: Access Venture Partners, Ridgeline Ventures, Techstars, Blackhorn Ventures
• Research Centers and Universities: Colorado School of Mines, University of Colorado Boulder, University of Denver, Colorado State University, Mesa Laboratory, Space Science Institute, National Center for Atmospheric Research, National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Gottlieb Institute

Voyant Photonics is bushing the boundaries of silicon photonic chips that steer and switch light at high speed. They power next generation, chip-scale FMCW LiDAR for robotics and autonomy, and optical circuit switches (OCS) for AI data centers. Based in NYC, we’re a hands-on team designing, building, and deploying frontier hardware to solve problems that matter, from how machines see to how AI scales.

Why Join Us?

At Voyant, you’ll help develop some of the most sophisticated silicon photonic chips, spanning two applications: optical circuit switching for AI data centers and chip-scale LiDAR sensing.

You’ll tackle engineering challenges at the intersection of photonic device physics, large-scale circuit integration, and semiconductor manufacturing, developing high-performance photonic components that enable PICs with hundreds to thousands of integrated optical devices., We build frontier hardware & systems from our lab and office in Midtown Manhattan, where optical tables, lab benches and electronics sit alongside traditional office space. Our work is hands-on and primarily in person, but we don’t run on a rigid 9-to-5. We partner with customers across time zones, so some calls start early or run late, and we adjust schedules around them. We run a high-trust, high-accountability environment: you’ll own meaningful work, move quickly and often wear more than one hat. Voyant provides catered lunch every day at HQ, and we’re a diverse group of food lovers from around the world who enjoy sharing food, culture and technical ideas around the lunch table.