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Optical Systems Engineer

Etched· Platform
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San JoseFull-timePosted 3mo ago

About the role

Etched is building hardware for frontier intelligence, co-designing chips, racks, software, and manufacturing to deliver best-in-class throughput and latency for inference workloads. The Optical Systems Engineer will own the definition and implementation of the optical interconnect architecture for next-generation accelerator systems and help scale manufacturing capabilities.

Responsibilities

  • Lead optical link architecture and system design for Etched's accelerator systems
  • Evaluate and integrate next-generation interconnect technologies (such as NPO, CPO, and OCI) into our product roadmap
  • Drive prototypes through definition, validation, and the transition to volume production
  • Partner with Signal Integrity, PCB, ASIC, Thermal, and Mechanical Engineering teams to implement electrical-optical interfaces in high-performance AI servers
  • Engage optical module, laser, and PIC suppliers on specifications, qualification, and integration
  • Capture multi-rack interconnect requirements including topology, reach, connectors, and fiber management to ensure our products meet them
  • Bring up optical interfaces on the accelerator card and debug link issues using BERTs, sampling scopes, and OSAs
  • Define optical bring-up strategies and equipment while supporting test development for high-volume manufacturing
  • Own optics-related documentation, including AVLs, fiber/cable BOMs, serviceability guidelines, and assembly procedures

Qualifications

  • 5–10 years of experience in optical interconnect, transceiver, or photonic system design and development for high-density compute systems
  • Expertise across advanced optical interconnect architectures, including Co-Packaged Optics (CPO), Near-Packaged Optics (NPO), Optical Compute Interconnect (OCI), Linear Pluggable Optics (LPO), and emerging form factors (XPO)
  • Clear understanding of architectural tradeoffs across these technologies: energy-per-bit, bandwidth density, reach, latency, serviceability, and reliability
  • Strong fundamentals in optical link engineering, including link-budget analysis, IL/RL, OSNR, eye diagrams, jitter, BER, and FEC margining
  • Working knowledge of laser sources, modulators, TIAs, and DSPs/retimers
  • Knowledge of high-speed host interfaces such as 100G/200G-per-lane PAM4
  • Experience with traditional pluggable solutions (OSFP, QSFP-DD)
  • Deep familiarity with photonic-electronic co-design and advanced packaging methods, such as fiber-attach (edge couplers, grating couplers, V-groove FAUs, detachable optical connectors), optical interposers, and 2.5D/3D heterogeneous integration
  • Comfort co-designing optical engines alongside the ASIC, substrate, package, and cold-plate-integrated liquid cooling solutions
  • Conversant in relevant industry standards and MSAs (OCI, Open CPX, OIF, UCIe)
  • Proven track record of bringing up optical links and PIC-based subsystems alongside silicon, including root-cause debugging with PIC foundries, ELS vendors, and OSATs
  • Deep understanding of datacenter infrastructure, specifically high-power (>10 kW) liquid-cooled AI servers and cluster-scale optical fabrics
  • Passionate about modern AIs like ChatGPT, and willing to learn about them on the job

Skills

Required:optical interconnect designoptical architectures (CPO, NPO, OCI, LPO, XPO)link-budget analysis / OSNR / eye diagrams / jitter / BER / FEClaser sources, modulators, TIAs, DSPs/retimershigh-speed interfaces (100G/200G PAM4)photonic-electronic co-design / advanced packagingsupplier engagement (laser, PIC, modules)cross-functional collaboration

Benefits

  • Medical, dental, and vision packages with generous premium coverage
  • $500 per month credit for waiving medical benefits
  • Housing subsidy of $2,500 per month for those living within walking distance of the office
  • Relocation support for those moving to San Jose (Santana Row)
  • Various wellness benefits covering fitness, mental health, and more
  • Daily lunch and dinner in our office
  • Unlimited compute budget subject to ROI justification
Last updated Sep 17, 2026. Interested? Apply on the company site.
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About Etched

Etched is building frontier inference clusters: co-designs chips, racks, software and manufacturing to push the pareto frontier for AI hardware.

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