{"id":2047158,"url":"https://alion.io/job/salience-labs-lead-photonics-designer-engineer-iiiv-components","title":"Lead Photonics Design Engineer - III/V Components","company":{"id":2029320,"name":"Salience Labs","domain":"saliencelabs.ai","url":"https://alion.io/company/saliencelabs","size_band":"51-200","is_staffing_agency":false,"employer_type":"direct","is_intermediary":false,"listed_via":null,"ats_vendor":"Ashby","truth_index":null},"role":"Hardware","role_family":"Hardware","seniority":"lead","employment_type":"full_time","work_mode":"hybrid","remote_scope":null,"remote_scope_basis":null,"remote_working_hours":null,"hiring_geo_confidence":"structured","locations":["Oxford, United Kingdom","United States"],"countries":["GB","US"],"hiring_countries":[],"hiring_countries_total":0,"salary":null,"salary_estimate":{"min_usd":80000,"max_usd":140000,"period":"year","method":"role_seniority_country_remote_cell","sample_n":27},"experience_years_min":8,"visa_sponsorship":false,"relocation_package":false,"has_equity":false,"technologies":[{"name":"Cadence Virtuoso","optional":false},{"name":"CVD","optional":false},{"name":"KLayout","optional":false},{"name":"Photolithography","optional":false},{"name":"Tanner L-Edit","optional":false},{"name":"C++","optional":true},{"name":"MATLAB","optional":true},{"name":"Python","optional":true}],"status":"live","first_seen_at":"2026-10-07T19:20:09Z","employer_posted_date":"2026-10-07","last_verified_at":"2026-11-03T10:03:20Z","board_verified":true,"closed_at":null,"days_open":26,"trust":{"level":"ok","repost_count":null,"flags":[],"days_open":26},"description":"About us\nSalience Labs is developing optical circuit switching technology for AI infrastructure, aimed at reducing latency and cost in data centre networks. As we move towards deployment, you'll have real ownership of your area and work alongside a highly technical team on a hard problem in AI infrastructure.\nThe role\nYou'll join a multi-disciplinary research team in the UK to lead the development of III-V active components for integration with silicon photonics. You will take devices from epitaxial stack and device design through fabrication with external partners, to characterisation, reliability and qualification.\nWhat you'll be doing\nLead the design and modelling of III-V active devices, including epitaxial layer structure, gain and power modelling, optical mode design, and electrical and thermal design\n\nOwn the technology roadmap and device specifications for your area, translating system requirements into device design and integration targets\n\nLead mask design and tape-outs, including GDS layouts, test structures and design-of-experiment splits\n\nManage fabrication runs with external epitaxy and foundry partners: define process flows, review process and in-line data, and resolve yield issues as the technology scales\n\nDefine and lead the characterisation strategy at wafer, chip and integrated-PIC level, including building and automating test setups\n\nAnalyse test data, correlate measured performance with design and process variations, and drive design iterations to close performance gaps\n\nWork with packaging and reliability engineers on burn-in, accelerated ageing, failure analysis and qualification\n\nMentor engineers and, as the team grows, help recruit and develop new team members\n\nEssential requirements\nPhD in physics, photonics, electrical engineering, optical engineering or a related subject with 6+ years' relevant experience, or a Master's degree with 8+ years' relevant experience, including at least 4 years' hands-on development of III-V optical amplifiers or semiconductor lasers, preferably in industry\n\nProven track record of taking III-V devices from concept through design, fabrication and test, ideally including qualification\n\nDeep understanding of semiconductor laser and amplifier physics: optical gain, carrier dynamics, quantum-well design, noise, gain saturation and nonlinearities, thermal effects and polarisation dependence\n\nHands-on knowledge of III-V epitaxy and fabrication processes (e.g. MOCVD/MBE growth, lithography, etching, passivation, metallisation, facet/AR coating), and experience working with external foundries\n\nExperience characterising amplifiers or lasers, including optical spectrum analysis, gain and noise measurement, wafer-level probing, temperature-controlled testing and test automation\n\nExperience with simulation and layout tools for photonic devices, such as Lumerical, Photon Design, Crosslight, RSoft, COMSOL, KLayout, L-Edit or Cadence Virtuoso\n\nProven ability to lead technical projects across design, process, test and packaging functions, and experience mentoring or supervising engineers\n\nExcellent communication skills, critical thinking, attention to detail and self-motivation\n\nNice to have\nExperience integrating III-V active devices with silicon photonics, including coupling design between III-V and silicon waveguides\n\nExperience line-managing a technical team\n\nExperience with reliability testing and failure analysis of III-V devices\n\nExperience developing PDK building blocks or compact models for active devices\n\nProgramming experience (Python, MATLAB or C++) for simulation, test automation and data analysis\n\nKnowledge of photonic packaging, including fibre coupling, thermal design and TEC control\n\nA track record of high-quality patents and research papers","description_format":"text","description_chars":3765,"description_truncated":false,"requirements":{"experience_years_min":8,"management_years_min":null,"team_size_min":null,"manages_managers":false,"education":{"level":"master","optional":false},"security_clearance":false,"languages":[]},"benefits":[],"hiring_locations":[{"name":"United States","iso":"US","kind":"country"},{"name":"United Kingdom","iso":"GB","kind":"country"}],"hiring_excludes":[],"relocation_offered":false,"industries":["Optical Communications","Optics & Photonic Components"],"lifecycle":[{"event":"open","at":"2026-10-07T20:03:19Z"}],"visa":[{"country":"GB","licensed_sponsor":true,"evidence":"Licensed UK visa sponsor (Skilled Worker)","filings_12m":null,"filings_prev_12m":null,"green_card_filings_12m":null,"median_offered_wage_usd":null,"route":"Skilled Worker","cap_exempt":false,"checked_at":"2026-11-03T08:26:00+00:00","sources":["UK Home Office: register of licensed sponsors (workers)"],"filings_for_role_12m":0}],"liveness":{"score":47,"band":"ok","label":"Likely open","p_open":1,"p_active":0.86,"p_room":0.55,"age_days":26,"expected_fill_days":26,"reasons":["conf:0","urgency","win:tail"],"computed_at":"2026-11-03T05:54:40Z"},"pay":null,"html_url":"https://alion.io/job/salience-labs-lead-photonics-designer-engineer-iiiv-components","json_url":"https://alion.io/job/salience-labs-lead-photonics-designer-engineer-iiiv-components.json","meta":{"generated_at":"2026-11-03T10:31:18Z","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":14620,"day_limit":null,"remaining_today":null,"minute_limit":300,"resets_at":"2026-11-04T00:00:00Z"}},"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":2029320},"rest":"https://alion.io/mcp/rest/get_company?id=2029320"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.slices&for=job%2Fsalience-labs-lead-photonics-designer-engineer-iiiv-components"},{"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%2Fsalience-labs-lead-photonics-designer-engineer-iiiv-components"},{"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%2Fsalience-labs-lead-photonics-designer-engineer-iiiv-components"},{"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/salience-labs-lead-photonics-designer-engineer-iiiv-components\", \"note\": \"what you need it for\"}"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.verify&for=job%2Fsalience-labs-lead-photonics-designer-engineer-iiiv-components"}],"agent":{"mcp":"https://alion.io/mcp/jobs","mcp_open":"https://alion.io/mcp/open","next":[{"tool":"get_job","arguments":{"id":2047158}},{"tool":"search_jobs","arguments":{"company":"saliencelabs.ai","detail":"compact"}},{"tool":"match_people","arguments":{"job_id":2047158},"note":"people open to offers who fit this vacancy"}],"note":"The same data through MCP tools: https://alion.io/mcp/open needs no sign-in (compact searches, postings, people); https://alion.io/mcp with an Alion account has everything. Docs: https://alion.io/developers"}}