{"id":2658424,"url":"https://alion.io/job/great-sky-photonics-design-engineer","title":"Photonics Design Engineer","company":{"id":2372716,"name":"Great Sky","domain":"greatsky.ai","url":"https://alion.io/company/greatsky","size_band":"11-50","is_staffing_agency":false,"employer_type":"direct","is_intermediary":false,"listed_via":null,"ats_vendor":"Ashby","truth_index":null},"role":"Industrial Engineering","role_family":"Industrial Engineering","seniority":null,"employment_type":"full_time","work_mode":"hybrid","remote_scope":null,"remote_scope_basis":null,"remote_working_hours":null,"hiring_geo_confidence":"structured","locations":["Boulder, United States"],"countries":["US"],"hiring_countries":[],"hiring_countries_total":0,"salary":{"min":150000,"max":190000,"currency":"USD","period":"year","gross":null,"usd_annual":190000},"salary_estimate":null,"experience_years_min":null,"visa_sponsorship":false,"relocation_package":false,"has_equity":true,"technologies":[{"name":"AI Agents","optional":false},{"name":"KLayout","optional":false}],"status":"live","first_seen_at":"2026-10-15T22:56:31Z","employer_posted_date":"2026-10-15","last_verified_at":"2026-10-18T03:42:58Z","board_verified":true,"closed_at":null,"days_open":2,"trust":{"level":"ok","repost_count":null,"flags":[],"days_open":2},"description":"About Us\nGreat Sky is a technology startup based with a mission to rebuild AI from first principles. We are pursuing neuroscience-inspired hardware and algorithms that overcome the greatest challenges in scaling AI systems.\nWe are seeking a highly motivated PIC Design Engineer to design the detector-integrated photonic networks central to our cryogenic technology platform.\nYou will own the design of our active and passive photonic components and circuits, from simulation and layout through tapeout at major semiconductor foundries. You will also work with foundry process teams to make sure the designs are manufacturable.\nThis is a high-ownership position with substantial influence on the pace and direction of our hardware development.\nHow You’ll Make An Impact:\nDesign, simulate, and optimize passive photonic components on silicon nitride (SiN) and silicon platforms. Examples include waveguides, grating and edge couplers, splitters, mode converters, resonators, and optical I/O.\n\nDesign active components for cryogenic operation, including waveguide-integrated superconducting nanowire single-photon detectors (SNSPDs) and phase shifters or modulators.\n\nDesign and lay out detector-integrated photonic circuits that combine passive optical routing with integrated detectors and their electrical readout.\n\nPrepare tapeouts for foundry multi-project wafer (MPW) and dedicated runs, including layout, verification, design reviews against foundry PDKs, and test structures to measure component performance and process variation.\n\nBuild and maintain our internal PDK, component libraries, and script-based layout and DRC flows (e.g., GDSFactory, KLayout), working with foundry process teams to keep them in line with process capabilities and design rules.\n\nWork closely with test, packaging, and systems integration teams to compare measured cryogenic performance with simulation, speeding up our design-build-test-learn cycles.\n\nWhat You Bring:\nRequired:\nBS, MS or PhD in physics, electrical engineering, optics, or a related field; or equivalent practical experience.\n\nStrong proficiency in industry-standard electromagnetic simulation methods (FDTD/ EME) and softwares (e.g., Ansys Lumerical, Tidy3D).\n\nExperience designing devices on silicon nitride and/or silicon photonics platforms, such as grating couplers, edge couplers, splitters, and waveguide transitions.\n\nSolid understanding of photonic layout concepts, Design Rule Checking (DRC), and familiarity with standard layout tools (e.g., KLayout, Luceda, Cadence).\n\nExperience developing or extending a PDK, including PCells, component libraries, design rules, or compact models.\n\nPreferred:\nExperience taping out photonic designs through a foundry or MPW program (e.g., imec, AIM Photonics, Ligentec).\n\nExperience designing SNSPDs or other waveguide-integrated detectors, or active devices such as phase shifters and modulators.\n\nExperience with multi-layer SiN platforms and interlayer couplers.\n\nHands-on optical and electro-optical characterization (e.g., fiber coupling, waveguide loss, grating coupler, and photodetector measurements).\n\nExperience with fabricating devices on at least one of these platforms: silicon photonics, silicon nitride, and/or superconducting electronics.\n\nExperience using AI tools, including agentic AI, to improve photonic designs and write layout code.\n\nBenefits and Perks\nMeaningful equity ownership in an early-stage deep tech company\n\nEmployer-matched 401(k)\n\nHealth, dental, vision, and life insurance\n\nFlexible PTO\n\nSupport for ongoing learning, conference attendance, and skill development\n\nOur culture is onsite by default (we're founded by scientists who are used to working in the lab), with flexibility for hybrid arrangements. For the right person and role, we're open to filling roles remotely","description_format":"text","description_chars":3806,"description_truncated":false,"requirements":{"experience_years_min":null,"management_years_min":null,"team_size_min":null,"manages_managers":false,"education":{"level":"bachelor","optional":false},"security_clearance":false,"languages":[]},"benefits":["Equity","Life insurance"],"hiring_locations":[{"name":"United States","iso":"US","kind":"country"}],"hiring_excludes":[],"relocation_offered":false,"industries":["Optical Communications","AI Chips & Accelerators"],"lifecycle":[{"event":"open","at":"2026-10-15T23:43:43Z"}],"visa":[{"country":"US","licensed_sponsor":true,"evidence":"Filed H-1B visas in the last two years","filings_12m":0,"filings_prev_12m":1,"green_card_filings_12m":0,"median_offered_wage_usd":null,"route":null,"cap_exempt":false,"checked_at":"2026-10-15T11:24:14+00:00","sources":["US Department of Labor: LCA disclosure data (H-1B, H-1B1, E-3)"],"filings_for_role_12m":0}],"liveness":{"score":86,"band":"hot","label":"Hiring now","p_open":1,"p_active":0.86,"p_room":1,"age_days":1,"expected_fill_days":20,"reasons":["conf:0","win:early"],"computed_at":"2026-10-17T05:46:00Z"},"pay":{"stated_usd_annual":190000,"is_top_pay":true},"html_url":"https://alion.io/job/great-sky-photonics-design-engineer","json_url":"https://alion.io/job/great-sky-photonics-design-engineer.json","meta":{"generated_at":"2026-10-18T06:27:22Z","cache_seconds":300,"methodology":"https://alion.io/methodology","terms":"https://alion.io/terms","contact":"https://alion.io/contact","api":"https://alion.io/developers","about":"Alion is a live layer of people, companies and AI agents: who they are, whether they are real and active right now, what they do and how to work with them, readable by people and by agents and paid per call.","catalog":"https://alion.io/catalog.json","usage":{"tier":"crawler_verified","counted_by":"address","units_charged":1,"used_today":9520,"day_limit":null,"remaining_today":null,"minute_limit":300,"resets_at":"2026-10-19T00:00:00Z"}},"offers":[{"id":"company.slices","title":"One company in depth, by slice","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.02,"usd":0.002,"plus_per_slice":{"credits":0.05,"usd":0.005}},"unit":"per company, plus each slice with data","note":"the employer in depth","call":{"mcp_tool":"get_company","arguments":{"id":2372716},"rest":"https://alion.io/mcp/rest/get_company?id=2372716"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.slices&for=job%2Fgreat-sky-photonics-design-engineer"},{"id":"market.stats","title":"A market slice: pay, demand and time to fill","status":"live","price":{"credits":1,"usd":0.1},"unit":"per slice","note":"pay, demand and time to fill for this role and place","call":{"mcp_tool":"market_stats"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=market.stats&for=job%2Fgreat-sky-photonics-design-engineer"},{"id":"job.search","title":"Open jobs by role, technology, place, pay and visa","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.02,"usd":0.002},"unit":"per posting in a list","note":"similar open postings","call":{"mcp_tool":"search_jobs"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=job.search&for=job%2Fgreat-sky-photonics-design-engineer"},{"id":"company.verify","title":"Is this company real and active right now","status":"pilot","price":null,"unit":"per company","request":{"url":"https://alion.io/catalog/request","method":"POST","body":"{\"offer\": \"company.verify\", \"for\": \"job/great-sky-photonics-design-engineer\", \"note\": \"what you need it for\"}"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.verify&for=job%2Fgreat-sky-photonics-design-engineer"}]}