Senior Silicon Photonics Design Engineer

Overview

• NVIDIA has continuously reinvented itself over two decades.
• Our invention of the GPU in 1999 sparked the growth of the PC gaming market, redefined modern computer graphics, and revolutionized parallel computing.
• More recently, GPU deep learning ignited modern AI — the next era of computing.
• NVIDIA is a "learning machine" that constantly evolves by adapting to new opportunities that are hard to solve, that only we can tackle, and that matter to the world.
• This is our life's work, to amplify human creativity and intelligence.
• Make the choice and join us today! Optical interconnect is becoming the backbone of AI-scale computing, and co-packaged optics is one of the hardest, highest-impact problems in that shift.
• We're looking for a senior engineer to join the team that owns silicon photonics design and modeling for our optical roadmap.
• This role lives at the electronic-photonic boundary — building the models and co-simulation flows that let photonic and high-speed electronic designs be verified together.
• You'll work shoulder-to-shoulder with circuit, system, and characterization engineers, and share in the team's collective ownership of a foundational capability.
• What you'll be doing: Develop and maintain the electro-optic co-simulation flow, integrating Verilog-A compact models with circuit and link simulation so photonics and electronics can be verified in one environment.
• Define silicon-photonics test structures and characterization plans, and extracting compact-model parameters from measured optical, electrical, electro-optic, RF, and thermal data.
• Build and calibrate compact/behavioral models for silicon photonic components — ring modulators and resonators, Mach-Zehnder modulators, photodetectors, grating/edge couplers, waveguides, splitters, and thermo-optic phase shifters.
• Correlate models against foundry and in-house characterization data (spectra, S-parameters, OMA/ER), contributing to the model accuracy and validation the team is collectively responsible for.
• Partner closely with circuit/SerDes designers, system teams, and foundry contacts as the direct customers of the team's models.
• Contribute to the shared component library the team maintains — versioning, documentation, QA, and release — taking detailed physics/EM models as source data and abstracting them into design-usable form.
• What we need to see: MS and/or PhD in Electrical Engineering, Applied Physics, Photonics/Optical Engineering, or related field (or equivalent experience).
• Electronic-photonic co-simulation and Verilog-A compact modeling, integrating photonic models into a circuit design environment (Cadence ecosystem a plus).
• 5+ years of design experience in industry or applied R&D, spanning photonic and/or high-speed electronic design.
• Proven track record in silicon photonics device modeling, compact modeling, or optical component design.
• Photonic simulation tools: Lumerical (FDTD, MODE, INTERCONNECT, CHARGE) or comparable (Ansys, Synopsys OptoDesigner/RSoft).
• Solid grasp of photonic device physics: resonator theory (CMT, Q, FSR, ER/OMA), carrier-based and thermo-optic modulation, waveguide loss and dispersion.
• Experience building verification/testbench environments and correlating models to measurement.
• Strong debugging and analytical skills, and a genuine desire to work as part of a close-knit team.
• Ways to stand out from the crowd: Foundry PDK flow experience, photonic layout/DRC awareness, optical VNA/LCA measurement background.
• We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status.