Director of Photonics

About Celestial AI

As Generative AI continues to advance, the performance drivers for data center infrastructure are shifting from systems-on-chip (SOCs) to systems of chips. In the era of Accelerated Computing, data center bottlenecks are no longer limited to compute performance, but rather the system’s interconnect bandwidth, memory bandwidth, and memory capacity. Celestial AI’s Photonic Fabric™ is the next-generation interconnect technology that delivers a tenfold increase in performance and energy efficiency compared to competing solutions.

The Photonic Fabric™ is available to our customers in multiple technology offerings, including optical interface chiplets, optical interposers, and Optical Multi-chip Interconnect Bridges (OMIB). This allows customers to easily incorporate high bandwidth, low power, and low latency optical interfaces into their AI accelerators and GPUs. The technology is fully compatible with both protocol and physical layers, including standard 2.5D packaging processes. This seamless integration enables XPUs to utilize optical interconnects for both compute-to-compute and compute-to-memory fabrics, achieving bandwidths in the tens of terabits per second with nanosecond latencies.

This innovation empowers hyperscalers to enhance the efficiency and cost-effectiveness of AI processing by optimizing the XPUs required for training and inference, while significantly reducing the TCO2 impact. To bolster customer collaborations, Celestial AI is developing a Photonic Fabric ecosystem consisting of tier-1 partnerships that include custom silicon/ASIC design, system integrators, HBM memory, assembly, and packaging suppliers.

ABOUT THE ROLE

As the Director of Photonics, you will be responsible for leading all engagements with our foundry partners to develop and establish commercial Photonics Process Design Kits (PDKs). You will also manage and mentor a high-performing team of photonics engineers, driving component and process design for next-generation products. The ideal candidate will be a self-starter who thrives in a highly collaborative and dynamic work environment.

ESSENTIAL DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

• Own and drive major programs focused on the development and continuous improvement of Photonics Process Design Kits (PDKs) for next-generation photonic technologies.
• Lead a team of designers in new PDK development at commercial foundries, contributing to process & device specifications and design, integrating the PDK into standard chip-design environments and identifying wafer acceptance criteria.
• Lead engagements with foundries and fabrication partners to optimize process integration, ensuring scalability and manufacturability of photonic devices.
• Work in conjunction with broader Photonics and cross-functional teams to ensure that PDK design goals are met at both the device and system level.

QUALIFICATIONS

• Minimum MS in Electrical Engineering or Physics. PhD is preferred.
• Minimum 10 years of relevant experience
• Strong experience with developing and/or deploying Silicon Photonics PDKs at commercial foundries, including a deep understanding of both design and process impacts on device performance.
• Strong experience in managing a team of designers to develop and characterize Silicon Photonics library elements.
• Strong experience with simulation of Silicon Photonics components using standard tools (Lumerical, Photon Design, RSoft, VPI or similar).
• Strong experience with physical design/layout tools and environments (Cadence, Mentor or similar)
• Experience with data analysis tools (JMP, DataConductor or similar)
• Excellent oral and written communication skills, as well as creativity in problem-solving with strong attention to detail

LOCATION: Santa Clara, CA

For California Location:

As an early stage start up, we offer an extremely attractive total compensation package inclusive of competitive base salary, bonus and a generous grant of our valuable early-stage equity. The target base salary for this role is approximately $220,000.00 - $250,000.00. The base salary offered may be slightly higher or lower than the target base salary, based on the final scope as determined by the depth of the experience and skills demonstrated by candidate in the interviews.

We offer great benefits (health, vision, dental and life insurance), collaborative and continuous learning work environment, where you will get a chance to work with smart and dedicated people engaged in developing the next generation architecture for high performance computing.

Celestial AI Inc. is proud to be an equal opportunity workplace and is an affirmative action employer.

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