Silicon Photonics Control & Calibration Engineer - Optical Circuit Switches (OCS)
About this role
Silicon Photonics Control & Calibration Engineer (OCS)
About us:
Voyant Photonics builds silicon photonic chips that steer and switch light at high speed. They power next generation, chip-scale FMCW LiDAR for robotics and autonomy, and optical circuit switches (OCS) for AI data centers. Based in NYC, we’re a hands-on team designing, building, and deploying frontier hardware to solve problems that matter, from how machines see to how AI scales.
About the role
We're looking for a Silicon Photonics Control & Calibration Engineer to join our Systems Team, reporting to the System Integration Lead. You'll own how our OCS photonic devices are driven, calibrated, and stabilized, from early device characterization through validated firmware. You'll design the algorithms, define what the drive electronics must deliver, build the benches to prove it all out, and own final validation once firmware implements your work.
What You'll Do:
- Characterize the control behavior of photonic devices such as thermo-optic phase shifters, MZIs, and switch elements, including drive response, thermal crosstalk, drift, and variation. - Design calibration routines and closed-loop control algorithms, prototyping them in Python and validating on test benches and hardware-in-the-loop setups. - Derive driver electronics requirements from device physics and control needs, such as DAC/ADC resolution and noise, bandwidth, channel count, power, and inter-channel crosstalk. - Validate driver hardware against those requirements, partnering with electronics engineers on design tradeoffs. - Hand off algorithms to firmware as clear specifications with reference implementations and test vectors. - Own final validation of firmware-implemented control and calibration, comparing embedded behavior against the Python reference. - Design, build, and automate the test setups that support all of the above. - Collaborate closely with photonics design, test, electronics, and firmware engineers, and generate clear reports that drive decisions.
What We're Looking For
- MS in Electrical Engineering, Physics, Optics, or a related field, or a BS with equivalent experience (PhD a plus). - 4+ years of hands-on experience in control, calibration, or characterization of optical, photonic, or other precision physical systems, though we're open to exceptional candidates at other experience levels who show strong potential and the right attitude. - Strong fundamentals in control and estimation: feedback design, stability, noise, and system identification from measured data. - Solid understanding of photonic device physics, particularly phase shifters and interferometric devices. - Mixed-signal electronics literacy sufficient to write and verify driver specifications and debug at the board level. - Proficiency in Python for algorithm prototyping, test automation, and data analysis. - Hands-on experience with lab equipment and demonstrated experience automating test setups. - Ability to read embedded C/C++ and debug alongside firmware engineers. - Excellent written and verbal communication skills, especially for specifying algorithms and requirements others will implement. - A self-starter who thrives with minimal formal process, and is comfortable defining structure where it doesn't yet exist. - Must be able to work on-site.