Photonic IC Design Engineer, Design Automation & Modeling
Key Skills for This Role
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Responsibilities
- 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.
Qualifications
- 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.
Nice to Have
- 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).
- Compensation and Benefits:
- 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!
- If you need a reasonable accommodation as part of your application for employment or interviews with us, please let us know.
- Export Compliance
- As defined in the ITAR, “U.S. Persons” include U.S. citizens, lawful permanent residents (i.e., Green Card holders), and certain protected individuals (e.g., refugees/asylees, American Samoans). Please consult with a knowledgeable advisor if you are unsure whether you are a “U.S. Person.”
- The person hired for this role will have access to information and items controlled by U.S. export control regulations, including the export control regulations outlined in the International Traffic in Arms Regulation (ITAR). The person hired for this role must therefore either be a “U.S. person” as defined by 22 C.F.R. § 120.15 or otherwise eligible for a federally issued export control license.
- Equal Opportunity
- K2 Space is an Equal Opportunity Employer; employment with K2 Space is governed on the basis of merit, competence and qualifications and will not be influenced in any manner by race, color, religion, gender, national origin/ethnicity, veteran status, disability status, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, mental or physical disability or any other legally protected status.
About K2 Space
Building high-power, mass-produced satellite platforms.
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