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 (such as NPO, CPO, and OCI) into our product roadmap
• Drive prototypes through definition, validation, and the transition to volume production
• Partner with Signal Integrity, PCB, ASIC, Thermal, and Mechanical Engineering teams to implement electrical-optical interfaces in high-performance AI servers
• Engage optical module, laser, and PIC suppliers on specifications, qualification, and integration
• Capture multi-rack interconnect requirements including topology, reach, connectors, 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 equipment while supporting test development for high-volume manufacturing
• Own optics-related documentation, including AVLs, fiber/cable BOMs, serviceability guidelines, and assembly procedures

Requirements

• 5–10 years of experience in optical interconnect, transceiver, or photonic system design for high-density compute systems
• Expertise in CPO, NPO, OCI, LPO, and emerging form factors (XPO)
• Understanding of architectural tradeoffs: energy-per-bit, bandwidth density, reach, latency, and reliability
• Strong fundamentals in optical link engineering (link-budget, IL/RL, OSNR, eye diagrams, jitter, 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, 2.5D/3D integration)
• Experience with datacenter infrastructure and high-power liquid-cooled AI servers
• Proven track record of bringing up optical links and PIC-based subsystems

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 our office
• Unlimited compute budget subject to ROI justification