Director of Laser System Development

Responsibilities

• Laser System Architecture & Development
• Lead the design, development, and optimization of high-power coherent laser systems operating in the O-band (1260-1360 nm), targeting applications including data center interconnects, and optical AI inference engines.
• Understand and manage the coherence trade-offs introduced by SOA amplification - including phase noise contribution, gain saturation, ASE impact on OSNR, and back-reflection management - and design system architectures that meet output coherence and power requirements within these constraints.
• Own system-level trade studies covering optical output power, coherence length, linewidth, RIN, SMSR, locking bandwidth, and wavelength stability across operating conditions.
• Develop and validate device and system models to predict performance and guide design decisions through simulation platforms such as Lumerical, VPIphotonics, PICS3D, or equivalent.
• Program & Team Leadership
• Build, lead, and mentor a multidisciplinary laser engineering team spanning laser physics, photonic integration, packaging, and test.
• Define technical roadmaps and milestone-driven development plans aligned with product schedules and business objectives.
• Drive program execution across in-house engineering teams and external III-V foundry and packaging partners; work closely with TPMs on schedule management, vendor coordination, and milestone tracking.
• Lead design reviews, root-cause failure analyses, and risk mitigation planning for laser subsystems.
• Communicate program status, critical path, technical risks, and resource needs to executive leadership with precision and clarity.
• Vendor & Partner Management
• Manage external III-V foundries, epi vendors, and module assembly partners througho

Additional Information

About Neurophos The demand for new datacenters and AI compute is rapidly outpacing the planet's energy capacity. Digital solutions are hitting a power wall as we approach the physical limits of traditional silicon. Conquering this bottleneck isn't about bigger chips or more of them; it means rethinking the fundamental architecture. The industry's current path isn't going to meet the need, so we took a different approach. Instead of traditional electronic circuits, we use silicon photonics and an active, programmable metasurface to perform matrix multiplications at the speed of light. Our optical cells are 10,000x smaller than traditional photonic components, enabling unprecedented density. By using photonics instead of electricity, our chips become more efficient as they scale. This architecture will deliver up to 100 times the energy efficiency of existing solutions while significantly improving performance for large-scale AI inference. We've assembled a world-class team of industry veterans and recently raised a $110M Series A led by Gates Frontier. Participants include M12 (Microsoft's Venture Fund), Carbon Direct Capital, Aramco Ventures, Bosch Ventures, Tectonic Ventures, Space Capital, and others. We have also been recognized on the EE Times Silicon 100 list for several consecutive years. Join us and shape the future of computing! Position Overview This role will lead Neurophos' O-band high-power coherent laser development programs. This is a senior position requiring deep technical expertise in semiconductor laser physics and the ability to drive complex photonic device development from architecture through productization. The Director will own end-to-end development of high-power coherent laser systems-including high-power laser + SOA (Semiconductor Optical Amplifier) configurations and single-wavelength injection-locked laser architectures-designed to meet output power, coherence, and spectral purity requirements for next-generation optical interconnect and AI compute platforms. The candidate must have hands-on experience driving III-V laser hardware development programs spanning multiple interdependent subsystems - laser die, SOA, driver electronics, coupling optics, thermal management, and module packaging. They must be skilled at planning around long foundry lead times, structuring work to minimize re-spins, and managing vendor relationships at the epi and process-spec levels. This role requires the technical depth to own critical path decisions and manage cascade impacts across subsystems. Location Austin, TX or San Jose, CA. Full-time onsite position.

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Company Intel

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