Photonic IC Design Engineer, Design Automation & Modeling

• Own the team's photonic design automation flow: parametric layout generation, simulation orchestration, design-space exploration, and automated DRC/LVS and sign-off across multiple integrated photonics foundry platforms (e.g., silicon, silicon nitride, III-V).
• Build and maintain fabrication-aware inverse design (topology optimization in JAX or PyTorch, with lithography models and robustness to process variation) as a core engine of the flow.
• Bring agentic and AI-guided tools into the design loop for design-space exploration, layout generation, optimization, and data analysis.
• Own device and circuit blocks on product PICs from specification through tapeout and characterization, on the team's tapeout schedule (e.g., polarization handling, low-loss routing, mode converters, vertical couplers for 3D integration, and wideband devices).
• Partner with the photonics test and automation team on characterization: build design-for-test into the flow (test structures, probe- and fiber-array-compatible layouts), define measurement plans and metrics, and connect the flow to the shared test data pipeline.
• Characterize your devices in the lab and on the test team's automated stations (insertion loss, extinction, bandwidth, high-speed electro-optic response), treat simulation-to-measurement error as your key metric, and turn the data into model calibrations, design rules, and flow updates.
• Maintain pcells and compact models for the team's component library, with regression tests so flow and PDK changes don't break existing designs.
• Extend those models into calibration and control for tunable PICs (thermal tuning, resonator locking, modulator bias): derive the control and calibration algorithms from the same models used in design, and use test-station calibration data to update both.
• Develop behavioral and physical models of photonic circuits, links, lasers, and gain media, and support system co-design with K2's electronics and ASIC teams.
• Make the flow usable by the whole team through documentation, reviews, and mentoring.

• PhD or MS in electrical engineering, optics, physics, computer science, or a related field, or a Bachelor's degree with equivalent experience.
• Built inverse design or other computational design tools that produced fabricated, measured devices on commercial integrated photonics foundry platforms.
• Strong software engineering: Python, autodiff frameworks, version control, and maintainable shared code.
• Electromagnetic simulation (FDTD, FEM, or RCWA) and hands-on lab characterization correlated to simulation.

• Machine learning or agentic AI applied to engineering design.
• Control systems, calibration, or system identification for tunable photonic circuits.
• Photonic layout and PDK tooling (e.g., gdsfactory, KLayout, Cadence).
• Laser or VCSEL design and modeling.
• 3D heterogeneous integration or co-packaged optics.
• Contributions to open-source electromagnetic or design tools (e.g., Meep).

• Base salary range for this role is $130,000 - $200,000 + equity in the company
• Salary will be based on several factors including, but not limited to: knowledge and skills, education, and experience level
• Comprehensive benefits package including paid time off, medical/dental/vision coverage, life insurance, paid parental leave, and many other perks

If you don’t meet 100% of the preferred skills and experience, we encourage you to still apply! Building a spacecraft unlike any other requires a team unlike any other and non-traditional career twists and turns are encouraged!

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