Senior Optical Fibre R&D Engineer

The role

This person will design and carry out precise measurements of optical fibre properties to test and evaluate advanced fibres in high-performance optical systems. The role involves experimental fibre characterisation, optical modelling, and exploratory subsystem demonstrations.

What you will do

• Design and carry out precise, repeatable measurements of optical fibre properties.
• Select and develop appropriate measurement methods, setups and analysis procedures.
• Assess measurement uncertainty, repeatability and limitations.
• Analyse and interpret experimental data using optical modelling and analytical tools.
• Plan and run exploratory experiments and subsystem demonstrations using advanced optical fibre.
• Adapt experimental methods and setups as fibre designs and system requirements develop.
• Work with optical-interface and mechanical-design colleagues to develop fibre assemblies and test setups.
• Collaborate with photonics, systems and experimental teams to translate requirements into measurements.
• Work with external development and research partners to review data and guide fibre development.
• Document methods, results and conclusions to inform engineering decisions.

Required qualifications

• PhD in optics, photonics, physics, engineering or a related field, or equivalent relevant R&D experience.
• Substantial research and development experience in fibre optics, guided-wave photonics or a closely related area.
• Strong experience designing and carrying out optical measurements, with care for precision, repeatability, calibration and sources of uncertainty.
• Experience taking research questions in fibre optics, guided-wave photonics or a closely related area through to engineering findings.
• Ability to interpret measurement data critically and identify how experimental setup or coupling conditions may affect results.
• Experience developing experimental setups and adapting methods to investigate unfamiliar or non-standard optical systems.
• Experience comparing experimental results with optical simulation or analytical predictions.
• Ability to use optical modelling or analytical methods to support experimental interpretation and guide design decisions.
• Strong practical problem-solving skills and sound experimental judgement.
• Ability to work flexibly in a small, collaborative R&D team.
• Clear communication skills to explain methods, results and limitations to technical colleagues and external partners.

Nice to have

• Experience characterising, with high precision, advanced or specialty optical fibres, or other non-standard waveguides.
• Experience measuring, with high precision, properties such as propagation or insertion loss, modal content, dispersion, polarisation behaviour or environmental sensitivity.
• Experience using fibre in optical subsystem demonstrations, beyond standalone fibre testing.
• Experience with optical coupling, fibre alignment, connectorisation, splicing or mechanical integration.
• Familiarity with optical simulation tools such as FDTD or other electromagnetic, waveguide or propagation modelling methods.
• Experience working with fibre research, fabrication or development groups.
• Experience in early-stage R&D where experimental approaches and technical priorities evolve as results emerge.

Benefits

• Equity
• Benefits

About the company

PsiQuantum's mission is to build the first useful quantum computers. The company uses silicon photonics to build and deploy million-qubit, fault-tolerant quantum systems.