Optoelectronics IC Design Engineer

Analog IC Design Engineer Mid-level (L4 equivalent) 2-5 years

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The job description

Tech stack. VCSEL drivers, photodetectors, transimpedance amplifiers, limiting amplifiers, optical link budgets, Cadence Virtuoso, Spectre, EM modeling

About the role

You will join a photonics semiconductor company designing the electronic ICs behind optical transceivers and LiDAR systems. The team builds the drivers that modulate lasers and the receivers that amplify faint photocurrents into clean digital signals. This role matters because optical link performance is set at the electro-optical boundary: your driver edges and receiver sensitivity decide the reach, rate, and power of every link the company sells. Datacenter bandwidth demand and automotive sensing keep optical volumes growing year after year. The team works across datacom, telecom, and sensing markets. You will also close the optical link budget with the photonics team, trading VCSEL drive current against receiver sensitivity to hit reach targets at minimum system power.

What you will achieve

Ship laser drivers and optical receiver front ends that meet extinction ratio, sensitivity, and jitter targets on first silicon
Design transimpedance amplifiers optimized for specific photodetectors, balancing bandwidth, noise, and overload recovery
Cut receiver power while holding sensitivity, extending the battery life of optical sensing products and the efficiency of datacom modules
Deliver driver pre-emphasis and receiver equalization that compensate VCSEL and photodiode bandwidth limits across temperature
Drive electro-optical co-design with photonics and packaging teams, modeling bond-wire and TIA input interactions before tapeout
Support optical link testing with BERTs, sampling scopes, and optical attenuators, debugging eye closure and BER floors on real hardware
Track photonics integration trends and position the electronics roadmap to match where the optics are going

What you will bring

Must-haves

2-5 years designing optoelectronic ICs (drivers, TIAs, limiting amplifiers) with shipped optical products
Strong understanding of photodetector and VCSEL characteristics: capacitance, responsivity, bandwidth, and their circuit implications
Design experience with wideband transimpedance amplifiers, including stability with large photodiode capacitance
Familiarity with optical link budgets: sensitivity, overload, extinction ratio, and how they partition between optics and electronics
Proficiency in Cadence Virtuoso and Spectre for GHz-range design, including noise and transient analyses
Working knowledge of packaging parasitics: bond wires, flip-chip bumps, and their impact on wideband front ends
B.S. or M.S. in Electrical Engineering with an optoelectronics or high-speed circuits focus

Nice-to-haves

Experience with silicon photonics co-design or coherent receiver front ends
Familiarity with LiDAR-specific circuits: high-voltage APD biasing or time-of-flight readout
Prior work on datacom standards (400G/800G Ethernet) and compliance testing