Sr. Silicon Photonics Design Engineer (RFIC Engineering)

Palo Alto · Palo Alto - 1200 · Redmond, WA · USD 175,000-280,000 · 5+ years experience · Posted Oct 15, 2026

At a glance

SpaceX is seeking a Sr. Silicon Photonics Design Engineer to develop next-generation Photonic Integrated Circuits (PIC) for space and ground infrastructure.
The role involves working within cross-disciplinary teams to design, simulate, and characterize high-speed optical link solutions for the Starlink network.

Design, analyze, and simulate optical building blocks such as MZM and Microring modulators, Ge Photo diodes, dWDM filters, waveguides, couplers, dividers, and polarization management circuitry.
Derive specifications for the Photonics IC systems and circuits.
Design and model package optical interface including edge coupler and grating couplers.
Work with system architects, DSP, electro-optics, and ASIC engineers to partition functions between hardware and software domains.
Perform IC floor planning and layout.
Evaluate, characterize, and measure electrical and optical building blocks of a high-speed optical link solution.
Assist in the development of automated test lab equipment for lab measurements.
Work with manufacturing engineers on production testing and qualification of the PIC circuits and systems.

Bachelor's degree in electrical engineering, computer engineering, or computer science.
5+ years of photonics or electro-optical integrated circuit design.
Ability to work long hours and weekends as necessary to support critical milestones.
Must meet ITAR requirements as a U.S. citizen, lawful permanent resident, refugee, or asylee.

Master's degree or PhD in electrical engineering, computer engineering (with emphasis on electro-optics IC design), or applied physics.
Experience using electrical simulation tools such as Spectre, ADS.
Knowledge of advanced packaging for a co-package optics (CPO) solution.
Electrical circuit design skills, and experience performing analysis and simulation of linear/non-linear circuits.
Experience working on wideband circuit designs supporting high speed Serdes links with more than 100Gbps data rate and BW exceeding 10s of GHz.
Familiarity with high speed SerDes architecture and modulation schemes such as NRZ/ PAM4 and link protocols.
Familiarity with optical and radio related test equipment such as spectrum analyzers, vector signal analyzers, vector signal generators, high speed oscilloscopes and BERTs.
Experience characterizing EIC/PIC performance for high speed optical Serdes.