Senior Photonics Test & Automation Engineer

The role

You will define how K2 tests photonics by building the lab and software to turn photonic integrated circuits into data. You will own photonic test from first-silicon bring-up through production screening.

What you will do

• Design, build, and own automated wafer-, die-, and module-level PIC test stations.
• Develop modular, reusable test automation software and instrument drivers in Python.
• Interface PIC test stations with custom free-space optical testbeds.
• Characterize passive and active photonic devices.
• Own design-for-test standards and correlate measurements with simulation.
• Build portable, automated setups for in-situ measurements during radiation, thermal-vacuum, and burn-in campaigns.
• Scale test from one device to many and hand off to production.
• Mentor engineers and technicians, and set lab standards for safety, calibration, and documentation.

Required qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in electrical engineering, physics, optics, or a related technical field, or an equivalent combination of education and experience.
• 5+ years of hands-on experience testing photonic integrated circuits or optoelectronic components (probing, fiber alignment, and optical test equipment).
• Built automated test stations from scratch, with Python for instrument control, test frameworks, and data analysis.
• Hands-on free-space optics (alignment, beam characterization, cameras or wavefront sensors).

Nice to have

• Advanced degree (MS or PhD) in a related field.
• Integrating free-space optical setups into automated test, and writing test plans and defining test structures with designers.
• Atmospheric turbulence, adaptive optics, or free-space optical communications, especially turbulence emulation with spatial light modulators or phase screens, or outdoor and field optical testing.
• High-speed electro-optic characterization to 50+ GHz (lightwave component analyzers, VNAs, BERTs, sampling oscilloscopes).
• Experience with commercial photonic probers and automated test equipment (e.g., FormFactor, MPI, ficonTEC).
• Polarization-diverse and phase-sensitive optical measurements.
• Environmental, thermal-vacuum, burn-in, or radiation testing of space hardware.
• Production test, manufacturing execution systems, or SQL test databases.

Benefits

• Paid time off
• Medical/dental/vision coverage
• Life insurance
• Paid parental leave
• Many other perks

Before you apply

• Must be a U.S. person as defined by 22 C.F.R. § 120.15 or otherwise eligible for a federally issued export control license.

About the company

K2 is building the largest and highest-power satellites ever flown. They are mass-producing high-power satellite platforms for missions from LEO to deep space.