Senior PIC Design

The Role

We’re looking for a Senior Photonic Integrated Circuit (PIC) Designer to lead the design and development of next-generation silicon photonic devices for high-speed optical communication systems. Working as part of a multidisciplinary engineering team, you’ll take ownership of complex PIC designs from architecture through simulation, tape-out and experimental validation.

This is an opportunity to work on industry-leading optical technologies that are enabling the next generation of AI infrastructure, hyperscale data centres and high-capacity networking.

What You’ll Do

• Design and optimise high-performance silicon photonic integrated circuits for optical communication applications.
• Develop and simulate photonic components including modulators, waveguides, couplers, multiplexers, filters and photodetectors.
• Perform optical and electromagnetic simulations to optimise device performance, power efficiency and manufacturing yield.
• Support PIC development from concept through layout, fabrication, testing and product qualification.
• Collaborate closely with layout, packaging, ASIC, systems and test engineers throughout the product development cycle.
• Analyse measurement data and refine designs to meet performance, reliability and manufacturability targets.
• Contribute to the development of photonic design methodologies, reusable IP and PDK libraries.

What We’re Looking For

• MSc or PhD in Photonics, Electrical Engineering, Physics or a related discipline.
• 5+ years of experience designing photonic integrated circuits in an industrial environment.
• Strong background in silicon photonics and optical communication systems.
• Experience designing devices for coherent optics, optical interconnects or high-speed transceivers.
• Hands-on experience with photonic simulation tools such as Ansys Lumerical, Synopsys OptSim, Photon Design or equivalent.
• Familiarity with PIC layout environments including Cadence Virtuoso, KLayout or Synopsys OptoCompiler.
• Experience supporting fabrication, wafer evaluation and experimental characterisation of photonic devices.
• Strong understanding of semiconductor fabrication processes and photonic device physics.
• Excellent problem-solving skills with the ability to work across multidisciplinary engineering teams.

Nice to Have

• Experience developing photonic devices for 400G, 800G or 1.6T optical interconnects.
• Knowledge of coherent transmission systems, WDM technologies or integrated lasers.
• Python, MATLAB or scripting experience for simulation automation and data analysis.
• Experience contributing to photonic PDK development or scalable PIC design flows.
• Familiarity with CMOS manufacturing processes and foundry-based silicon photonics platforms.

Darwin Recruitment is acting as an Employment Agency in relation to this vacancy.

Oliver Logan