---
title: 'Photonics IC Validation and Characterization Engineer (title will reflect experience) at Eliyan'
canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/photonics-ic-validation-and-characterization-engineer-title-will-reflect-kj77ht3q4rp9'
type: 'job'
last_seen: '2026-11-02'
---

# Photonics IC Validation and Characterization Engineer (title will reflect experience) at Eliyan

- **Company:** Eliyan
- **Location:** San Francisco Bay Area, CA
- **Employment:** full-time
- **Work type:** onsite
- **Posted:** 2026-02-24
- **Last confirmed live:** 2026-11-02
- **Apply:** https://jobs.lever.co/eliyan/4f033f5a-65ff-413f-b8b3-c24c5aeb7e6b

## Job description

Eliyan is building NuLink, a proprietary die-to-die chiplet interconnect fabric purpose-built for AI infrastructure at hyperscale.  We're looking for a hands-on validation and characterization engineer working at the intersection of photonics, opto-electronics, and high-speed electrical interconnect. You'll bring up real devices, characterize optical modulators, lasers, photodiodes, and the analog circuits that drive and receive them, and feeding what you learn directly back to the designers shaping the next generation of parts. This is a strong fit for someone who enjoys instruments and test & measurements as much as they enjoy code, and who wants to build deep, practical expertise in high-speed optical and electrical tests.

Key Responsibilities:

- Perform high-speed electrical and optical testing of photonic integrated circuits, including optical modulators, laser sources, photodiodes, drivers and TIA using >20 GHz instrumentation.
- Design and build laboratory setups comprised of light sources, detectors, fiber coupling and collimating optical components, microscopes, oscilloscopes, function and waveform generator, and translation stages.
- Build and run test automation, then analyze and present the resulting data clearly to engineering and cross-functional audiences.
- Understand raytracing and image formation, correlate SNR, OMA, ER simulations and measurements.
- Debug measurement setups and devices methodically — isolating issues across the optical, electrical, and software domains.
- Provide structured feedback to analog circuit designers on silicon performance, design quality, and operating margins.
- Contribute to test plans, characterization reports, and lab documentation.

Qualifications:

- 3+ years of experience.
- MS or PhD in Electrical Engineering, Photonics, Optical Engineering, Physics, or a related field.
- Exposure to wireline analog and digital signal processing concepts including CTLE, FFE, DFE, SNR, OMA, ER.
- Hands-on lab instincts and a genuine interest in high-speed test and measurement.
- Experience in high-speed and optical test equipment such as fast lasers and optical receivers, optical and electrical spectrum analyzers, AWG, BERT, oscilloscopes, DCA, DSO, VNA, and LCA.
- Hands on experience in VCSEL, DFB lasers, photodiode, or SerDes, Optical I/O characterization.
- Fluency in Python for test automation and data analysis.
- Strong debugging, problem-solving, and communication skills.
- Familiarity with RF and microwave, high-speed substrate and PCB design and manufacturing.

## 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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