---
title: 'Optical - Director, OE Development (DOD) at Eliyan'
canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/optical-director-oe-development-dod-eliyan-bay-area-hn4sqg6j0g19'
type: 'job'
last_seen: '2026-09-07'
---

# Optical - Director, OE Development (DOD) at Eliyan

- **Company:** Eliyan
- **Location:** Bay Area
- **Employment:** full-time
- **Work type:** onsite
- **Posted:** 2026-07-02
- **Last confirmed live:** 2026-09-07
- **Apply:** https://jobs.lever.co/eliyan/f5e6f3c6-38fa-478f-a990-b49a127efdc3

## Job description

Eliyan is building NuLink, a proprietary die-to-die chiplet interconnect fabric purpose-built for AI infrastructure at hyperscale.  As Eliyan expands into co-packaged optics (CPO), the Director (or higher-level depending on experience) of Optical Product Development owns the product strategy for integrating third-party optical components — VCSELs, photodetectors, lenses, and fiber interfaces — with Eliyan's silicon die at the package level. This role requires deep familiarity with semiconductor fabrication and assembly processes, as all optical integration decisions are constrained by and executed within a semiconductor packaging environment.

## KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

- Define optical product strategy centered on die-level co-packaging of external optical components with Eliyan's silicon.
- Own the optical component selection and qualification process (VCSELs, PDs, lenses, fiber connectors), evaluating vendors against system performance and assembly compatibility requirements.
- Drive assembly-aware optical product specifications — accounting for flip-chip tolerances, solder reflow constraints, alignment accuracy, and packaging design rules.
- Engage silicon process and design teams on equal footing, translating optical requirements into process-compatible constraints and vice versa.
- Navigate optical-electrical co-design tradeoffs within foundry process boundaries (e.g., TSMC, GlobalFoundries, or equivalent).
- Serve as the primary interface between optical and silicon teams (analog/digital), ensuring bidirectional feed-in/feedback between optical integration requirements and silicon design.
- Partner with Marketing to define product positioning, customer-facing optical specifications, and roadmap priorities.
- Report execution status and product milestones to the COA

## QUALIFICATIONS

- 12+ years in optical systems or photonic integration, with substantial hands-on experience in semiconductor fabrication, assembly, or advanced packaging environments.
- Solid working knowledge of semiconductor fabrication processes — FEOL/BEOL concepts, lithography constraints, metal layer stackups, and how process design rules affect optical integration feasibility.
- Deep understanding of co-packaging architectures — flip-chip bonding, micro-bump interconnects, interposer-based integration, or equivalent.
- Experience qualifying and integrating third-party optical components (VCSELs, PDs, optical subassemblies) into semiconductor packages.
- Familiarity with packaging design rules and their implications for optical alignment yield.
- Experience navigating optical-electrical co-design tradeoffs within foundry process boundaries.
- Strong cross-functional communication skills across silicon, packaging, and marketing teams.
- Standards-body experience (IEEE 802.3, OIF, CPO Consortium) a plus.

## About Eliyan

## Company Overview
- **One-liner**: Eliyan develops high-bandwidth, low-power chiplet interconnect technology (NuLink) that solves data bottlenecks in AI and data center chips.
- **Entity Type**: Private (Series C-II)
- **Headquarters**: Santa Clara, California, United States
- **Founded**: 2021
- **Founders**: Ramin Farjadrad (CEO), Syrus Ziai (VP Engineering), Patrick Soheili (Chief Strategy & Business Officer)

## Core Business
- Primary industry: Semiconductor Manufacturing (chiplet interconnect IP and PHY silicon)
- Target customers: B2B – companies building custom AI chips (hyperscalers, chip designers, networking firms)
- Mission: “Revolutionize chiplet connectivity technologies by challenging the status quo to unleash the ultimate performance of smart systems of the future.”

## Products & Services
- **[NuLink™ D2D PHY](https://eliyan.com/about/)**: Die-to-die interconnect PHY supporting industry standards (BoW and UCIe) and proprietary simultaneous-bidirectional (SBD) technology. Delivers 4× the bandwidth and 2× the power efficiency of alternatives in advanced or standard packaging, with bump pitches from 40–130 microns.
- **[NuLink™-XD](https://linkedin.com/company/eliyan-corporation)**: A new class of power-reach configurable 224G PAM4 SerDes for chip-to-chip and chip-to-module applications, targeting the lowest-power electro-optical modules for AI scale-up networks. Up to 40% lower power than competing solutions.

## Market Standing
- **Valuation**: $1 billion (as of July 2026 Series C)
- **Annual Revenue**: $3.5 million (2025); forecasts hundreds of millions by end of 2027 [reuters.com](https://www.cbinsights.com/company/eliyan)
- **Total Funding**: $295 million (conflicting reports: other sources state $150M total); includes $145M Series C led by Seligman Ventures (July 2026), $60M Series B led by Samsung Catalyst Fund and Tiger Global (March 2024), $40M Series A led by Tracker Capital (Nov 2022).
- **Notable Investors/Partners**: Seligman Ventures (board seat for Umesh Padval), Cisco Systems, Lumentum, Samsung Catalyst Fund, Tiger Global Management, Tracker Capital, VentureTech Alliance.
- **Growth Signals**: Headcount of 73 employees with +6.7% monthly growth; 21 active job postings (quarterly trend +2,000%); expects to start chiplet shipments in 2026; expanding across 6 countries (US, Germany, Netherlands, Canada, India, Israel).

## Competitive Advantages
- Breakthrough die-to-die interconnect architecture (invented by founder Ramin Farjadrad in 2016) that achieves 4× bandwidth and 2× power efficiency versus competing IP.
- Works with standard packaging (wide range of bump pitches), reducing cost and complexity for chip designers.
- Independent alternative to Broadcom/Marvell in the chiplet interconnect space, giving custom AI chip makers a neutral, high-performance option.

## Strategic Focus
- Solving the growing data-movement bottleneck in AI compute (GPUs often idle 30–40% waiting for data).
- Scaling NuLink and NuLink-XD platforms to support both chip-to-chip and chip-to-module applications for next-generation AI infrastructure.
- Ramping chiplet production and licensing revenue, targeting hundreds of millions in sales by 2027.

## Why Work Here
- On-site culture with offices in Santa Clara (HQ), Vancouver (BC), and other global locations; no remote/hybrid mentioned.
- Engineering-heavy team (54% technical roles) with a fast-paced startup environment and deep expertise from companies like Marvell, Intel, AMD, and Synopsys.
- Opportunity to work on cutting-edge semiconductor interconnect technology that directly impacts AI performance.
- Active hiring across digital design, verification, DFT, physical design, optical engineering, and program management.

## Sources
1. [eliyan.com/about](https://eliyan.com/about/)
2. [jobs.lever.co/eliyan](https://jobs.lever.co/eliyan)
3. [linkedin.com/company/eliyan-corporation](https://linkedin.com/company/eliyan-corporation)
4. [cbinsights.com/company/eliyan](https://www.cbinsights.com/company/eliyan)
5. [reuters.com (via CNA)](https://www.cbinsights.com/company/eliyan) (Note: embedded Reuters article on CB Insights page)
6. [eliyan.com/careers](https://eliyan.com/careers/)

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