Lead Photonics System Engineer

AMD AMD · Semiconductors · San Jose, CA · Engineering

This role is for a Lead Photonics System Engineer at AMD, focusing on architecting and bringing to market advanced optical interconnects for AI and data centers. The engineer will define product specifications, work cross-functionally, engage with customers, and optimize system performance across optical, electrical, and thermal domains. Experience with optical transceiver design, high-baud communication devices, and system-level bring-up is preferred.

What you'd actually do

  1. Define product features, capabilities, architecture, and validation requirements, as well as drive technical specifications for advanced optical interconnects.
  2. Work cross-functionally across design, packaging, platform, and NPI teams to ensure successful adoption of photonic solutions and serve as the photonic subject matter expert to help guide cross-functional decision-making, product-direction, and FMEA.
  3. Engage directly with internal customers such as GPU/CPU system architects and external customers (hyperscalers, networking OEMs) on technical discussions and architecture trade-offs, specification alignment, and translating customer requirements into internal design targets and system specifications.
  4. Work with SerDes, optical device, packaging, and SI/PI teams to:
  5. System-Level Bring-Up & Debug

Skills

Required

  • Specify, design, validate, and ramp state-of-the-art integrated optical products
  • Drive architectural decisions across circuit design, module design, integration, tray, and rack-level architecture
  • Align product specifications with hyperscale customer requirements
  • Ensure robust system performance from concept to deployment
  • Optimize system performance across optical, electrical, and thermal domains
  • Support Optical Engine bring-up on XPU and / or switch platforms
  • Conduct interoperability and system validation testing
  • Lead root cause analysis for performance gaps

Nice to have

  • Subject matter expertise on datacenter client optics
  • Experience with high-baud optical communication devices and systems
  • Strong working experience in optical transceiver design, fiber optics, RF modulation, and networking systems.
  • Experience with schematic and layout design for photonic integrated circuits
  • Familiarity with MSA and IEEE standards for optical transceivers, CPO, NPO (e.g., OCI, QSFP, OSFP, CMIS).
  • Experience testing transceiver performance: TDECQ, receiver sensitivity, stressed eye measurements