Sr. Principal Photonics engineer

Primary Duties & Responsibilities

The themes below are examples of early focus areas. They may evolve with CTO Office priorities and future Coherent needs.

• Advanced light sources for silicon photonics: evaluate source architectures such as quantum-dot DFB lasers, PIC-enhanced approaches, and comb-based sources against power, wavelength control, integration, reliability, packaging, manufacturability, and platform fit.
• Heterogeneous integration for active silicon photonics: explore integration approaches for lasers, amplifiers, pumps, modulators, and related active building blocks, with attention to process compatibility, yield, thermal behavior, reliability, and scalability.
• Energy-efficient optical I/O: develop architecture options for high-density, short-reach optical links relevant to memory-adjacent, scale-up, and disaggregated-compute use cases; compare parallel-emitter arrays, silicon photonics, and emerging emitter / receiver concepts using link-level and packaging-level metrics.
• Detector and receiver-side integration: assess photodiode-array and receiver-side technologies, including SiGe PD array options, link budgets, bandwidth, pitch, integration constraints, and packaging scalability.
• Simulation and analysis workflows: develop modeling methods that connect device-level behavior with link, thermal, packaging, and system-level trade-offs to guide feasibility decisions and architecture choices.
• Quantum, quantum dots, and emerging photonics: assess selected advanced photonics and quantum-adjacent technologies that may create future opportunities in communications, sensing, or integrated photonics platforms.
• Internal alignment and transition: work with internal experts and business groups to translate early technical findings into project proposals, proof points, and possible transition paths.

Key Responsibilities

Advanced Technical Assessment and Incubation

• Shape early-stage concepts, feasibility objectives, risk-reduction plans, and prototype approaches for priority CTO Office topics.
• Lead technical evaluations, modeling, design reviews, and trade-off studies with internal or external contributors.
• Develop technical recommendations on performance, manufacturability, integration path, scalability, reliability, and transition readiness.

Roadmap Input and Technology Direction

• Contribute technical input to roadmap discussions in optical interconnect, CPO / optical I/O, AI/HPC infrastructure, silicon photonics, advanced light sources, detector technologies, and related photonics platforms.
• Translate emerging technology options into clear milestones, risks, decision points, and recommended next steps.
• Connect future system needs, internal capabilities, external opportunities, and business-group priorities into actionable technical options.

External Innovation and Partner Assessment

• Build a practical view of relevant startups, universities, research institutes, suppliers, and technology partners.
• Evaluate external opportunities for technical credibility, maturity, differentiation, IP position, integration path, timing, and strategic fit.
• Develop technology input for build / partner / buy discussions and potential collaboration opportunities.

Cross-Functional Execution and Communication

• Collaborate with CTO Office colleagues, internal experts, business groups, and external partners to advance relevant opportunities from evaluation toward proof points.
• Prepare concise technical recommendations for senior technical, product, and business stakeholders.
• Represent Coherent in relevant technical forums, partner meetings, university discussions, and ecosystem engagements when relevant.

Education & Experience

• Advanced degree in Physics, Electrical Engineering, Materials Science, Photonics, or related field; Ph.D. preferred.
• 15+ years of experience in photonics, optical communications, semiconductor lasers, optoelectronic devices, data-center optical interconnect, quantum photonics, or related advanced technology fields.
• Deep technical understanding of optical I/O, semiconductor photonics, III-V devices, silicon photonics, photodetectors, advanced light sources, and system-level optical-interconnect trade-offs.
• Experience translating ambiguous technical opportunities into architectures, project scope, feasibility plans, risks, milestones, and technical recommendations.
• Experience with modeling, simulation, data analysis, and technical decision support using tools such as Python, COMSOL, Lumerical, Matlab, or equivalent.