Vice President Photonics Engineer Jobs (NOW HIRING)

Location: Sunnyvale, CA

Work Setting: Onsite executive leadership role

Travel: Approximately 20–30% international travel, primarily supporting engineering and manufacturing operations in China, Malaysia, Vietnam, and other East Asia locations

Compensation: $300,000 – $325,000 target base salary, with flexibility for exceptional candidates

Bonus: 40% target annual bonus

Equity: Equity participation

Relocation: Relocation assistance available

Benefits: Comprehensive medical, dental, vision, 401(k), equity participation, paid time off, and executive-level benefits package

Work Authorization: Candidates must be authorized to work in the United States. The company is open to considering candidates requiring limited employment authorization support.

Position Summary

A global leader in optical communications and photonics technology is seeking a Vice President of Engineering to lead one of its fastest-growing and most strategically important businesses focused on Optical Circuit Switching (OCS) technologies for AI infrastructure and hyperscale data center networking.

This executive will lead a global engineering organization responsible for driving technology strategy, product development, manufacturing scale-up, and commercialization of advanced optical networking products serving some of the world's largest cloud and AI infrastructure providers.

The organization has successfully completed customer qualification and is now entering a critical growth phase focused on scaling production, improving yields, optimizing designs, reducing costs, and accelerating deployment with Tier 1 customers.

This role requires a unique combination of deep technical expertise, executive leadership, and business acumen. The successful candidate will be responsible for guiding architecture decisions, managing a large multidisciplinary engineering organization, supporting strategic customer engagements, and helping shape the future of next-generation AI networking infrastructure.

Key Responsibilities

• Define and drive the long-term technology roadmap for Optical Circuit Switching platforms

• Lead a global engineering organization of approximately 150–200 engineers across multiple international locations

• Manage and develop senior engineering leaders across optics, photonics, ASIC, electrical, firmware, software, systems, packaging, manufacturing, and test engineering disciplines

• Drive product development from customer qualification through high-volume manufacturing

• Improve product performance, yield, manufacturability, and cost structure

• Guide architecture decisions across optical, electrical, firmware, software, and systems domains

• Establish engineering processes, accountability, and execution discipline across distributed teams

• Serve as a key executive interface to hyperscale customers and strategic partners

• Translate customer requirements into product and engineering priorities

• Support manufacturing scale-up initiatives and Design for Manufacturability (DFM) efforts

• Build organizational capability through hiring, leadership development, and team expansion

• Drive innovation, intellectual property development, and long-term technology differentiation

Required Qualifications

• Executive-level engineering leadership experience within optical networking, photonics, telecommunications, networking, or related technology environments

• Proven experience managing large multidisciplinary engineering organizations

• Demonstrated success leading global engineering teams of 50+ engineers, with preference for experience leading organizations approaching 100–200 engineers

• Deep technical expertise in optical networking, photonics, optical communications, optical switching, or closely related technologies

• Strong systems-level understanding across optics, hardware, firmware, software, and networking architectures

• Experience leading complex product development programs from concept through commercialization

• Strong customer-facing experience with enterprise, telecom, cloud, or hyperscale customers

• Experience scaling products and organizations through rapid growth and commercialization phases

• Strong executive communication, leadership, and organizational development skills

Preferred Qualifications

• PhD in Electrical Engineering, Optical Engineering, Physics, Photonics, or related discipline

• Experience with Optical Circuit Switching (OCS) technologies

• Background in optical transceivers, optical networking systems, or datacenter networking platforms

• Experience supporting AI infrastructure, cloud networking, or hyperscale data center technologies

• Product line management or business leadership experience

• Mandarin language skills are a plus

• Experience working extensively with global engineering and manufacturing teams across Asia

• Strong intellectual property and innovation leadership experience

Ideal Candidate Profile

The ideal candidate is a technically credible engineering executive who can comfortably operate at both the architecture and organizational leadership levels.

This person has the depth to evaluate competing technical approaches, challenge engineering assumptions, and make critical roadmap decisions while simultaneously leading a large global engineering organization through rapid growth and commercialization.

They are equally comfortable discussing optical architectures with engineers, manufacturing challenges with operations leaders, and business strategy with executive customers and stakeholders.

Most importantly, they are excited by the opportunity to help define the future of AI networking infrastructure while building and scaling a category-defining technology platform.

Why This Opportunity

• Executive leadership role within one of the company's highest-growth business units

• Direct impact on next-generation AI infrastructure and hyperscale networking technologies

• Opportunity to lead a global organization of 150–200 engineers

• Significant autonomy to shape engineering strategy, organizational structure, and product direction

• Existing engagement with many of the world's largest cloud and AI infrastructure providers

• Highly visible role with executive leadership exposure

• Opportunity to scale a business moving from successful customer qualification into large-scale commercialization

• Strong compensation package including bonus and equity participation

• Long-term opportunity to influence a rapidly expanding multibillion-dollar market

• Chance to help build a category-defining optical networking platform supporting the future of artificial intelligence infrastructure