Photonics Fabrication and Design Engineer

Photonics Fabrication and Design Engineer

Boulder, Colorado, United States (On-site)

On-site Boulder, CO

$140K–$180K base + equity

I'm working with a well-funded deep-tech startup developing a new integrated-photonics platform for advanced computing applications.

They are hiring a Photonics Fabrication and Design Engineer to own hands-on device fabrication, process development and design iteration. This is a fabrication-first position for someone who wants to personally develop hardware rather than work exclusively through external foundries.

You'll work on problems such as:

Owning microfabrication and nanofabrication runs

Developing and stabilizing repeatable process flows

Troubleshooting lithography, etch, deposition and integration issues

Performing failure analysis and correlating process changes with device performance

Fabricating integrated photonic and related semiconductor devices

Designing passive photonic components and test structures

Preparing layouts for fabrication

Supporting optical characterization and design iteration

Improving process yield, repeatability and documentation

Contributing to emerging integration and packaging approaches.

Looking for engineers who have:

Personally owned cleanroom fabrication runs for integrated photonic or closely related devices

Hands-on experience with lithography, dry etching, deposition and process development

Diagnosed failed runs and implemented process improvements

Worked with passive components such as waveguides, couplers, splitters, tapers or mode converters

Used electromagnetic simulation tools such as Lumerical, Tidy3D or similar

Used layout and DRC tools such as KLayout, Luceda, Cadence or related platforms

The ability to work independently in a shared cleanroom environment

Strong communication and experimental documentation skills.

Experience with SiN, silicon photonics, superconducting devices, hybrid integration, bonding, foundry transfer, PDK development or process-of-record creation would be particularly relevant.

The role can broaden into photonic design and testing over time, but the immediate priority is someone capable of taking direct ownership of fabrication and process development.

This is an opportunity to establish a foundational technical capability and help move a new photonic platform from early devices toward integrated hardware.

Worth a confidential chat?