Optical Systems Engineer

About the Company

Etched is building hardware for frontier intelligence. We co-design chips, racks, software, and manufacturing to deliver best-in-class throughput and latency across both prefill and decode workloads. Our first products are heavily focused on inference.

Responsibilities

• Lead optical link architecture and system design for Etched's accelerator systems
• Evaluate and integrate next-generation interconnect technologies (NPO, CPO, OCI) into the product roadmap
• Drive prototypes through definition, validation, and transition to volume production
• Partner with Signal Integrity, PCB, ASIC, Thermal, and Mechanical Engineering teams
• Engage optical module, laser, and PIC suppliers on specifications and qualification
• Capture multi-rack interconnect requirements including topology, reach, and fiber management
• Bring up optical interfaces on the accelerator card and debug link issues using BERTs, sampling scopes, and OSAs
• Define optical bring-up strategies and support test development for high-volume manufacturing
• Own optics-related documentation including AVLs, BOMs, and assembly procedures

Requirements

• 5–10 years of experience in optical interconnect, transceiver, or photonic system design
• Expertise in CPO, NPO, OCI, LPO, and emerging form factors (XPO)
• Understanding of architectural tradeoffs: energy-per-bit, bandwidth density, reach, and latency
• Strong fundamentals in optical link engineering (link-budget, OSNR, eye diagrams, BER, FEC)
• Working knowledge of laser sources, modulators, TIAs, and DSPs/retimers
• Knowledge of high-speed host interfaces such as 100G/200G-per-lane PAM4
• Experience with traditional pluggable solutions (OSFP, QSFP-DD)
• Familiarity with photonic-electronic co-design and advanced packaging (fiber-attach, optical interposers)
• Conversant in industry standards (OCI, Open CPX, OIF, UCIe)
• Proven track record of bringing up optical links and PIC-based subsystems
• Deep understanding of datacenter infrastructure and liquid-cooled AI servers

Benefits

• Medical, dental, and vision packages with generous premium coverage
• $500 per month credit for waiving medical benefits
• Housing subsidy of $2k per month for those living within walking distance of the office
• Relocation support for those moving to San Jose
• Various wellness benefits covering fitness and mental health
• Daily lunch and dinner in the office
• Unlimited compute budget subject to ROI justification