Senior Product Development Engineer

Title: Senior Product Development Engineer - Optical Interconnects

Location: Nashua, NH

Position Overview

Amphenol High Speed Products Group is seeking an innovative Senior Product Development Engineer to lead the development of next-generation optical interconnect technologies for AI, cloud computing, hyperscale data centers, networking, and high-performance computing applications. This role focuses on the design and integration of advanced optical connectivity solutions, including active optical systems, optical backplanes, co-packaged optics, silicon-photonics-enabled architectures, and emerging high-bandwidth interconnect technologies supporting 400G, 800G, 1.6T, and beyond. As a key member of our advanced engineering team, you will work at the intersection of optics, electronics, and system architecture to develop the technologies that will enable the next generation of AI infrastructure and hyperscale networking platforms.

Key Responsibilities:

• Lead the design and development of advanced optical interconnect solutions for high-density backplane, mid-board, and rack-scale networking applications.
• Develop next-generation optical connectivity architectures supporting 400G, 800G, 1.6T, and future terabit-class systems.
• Collaborate with customers to optimize products to meet industry needs and drive success in the marketplace.
• Evaluate emerging optical technologies and identify opportunities to incorporate them into our product portfolio.
• Drive innovation in optical backplane and board-level optical interconnect solutions.
• Develop and optimize micro-optic assemblies, fiber-coupling structures, waveguide interfaces, and photonic packaging solutions.
• Lead the development of optical alignment strategies and tolerance analyses for high-volume manufacturing.
• Collaborate with electronics engineers on high-speed electrical-to-optical interface development.
• Collaborate cross-functionally to perform engineering validation and qualification testing of optical products.
• Engage with hyperscale customers, networking OEMs, and industry consortia.
• Participate in industry events such as OFC, ECOC, OCP Summit, and DesignCon.
• Contribute to Amphenol's optical technology roadmap and mentor junior engineers.

Qualifications:

Required:

• B.S., M.S., or Ph.D. in Optical Engineering, Photonics, Electrical Engineering, Physics, or a related discipline.
• 7+ years of industry experience in optical communications, photonics, optical interconnects, or transceiver development.
• Strong understanding of fiber optics, waveguide theory, laser physics, physical optics, optical communication systems, and high-speed networking architectures.
• Experience with optical characterization and laboratory testing techniques.

Preferred:

• Experience with silicon photonics, co-packaged optics, optical I/O architectures, optical engines, optical backplanes, photonic packaging, active optical cables, or optical transceivers.
• Familiarity with AI clusters, data center, and high-performance computing architectures.
• Knowledge of PAM4 signaling, DSP architectures, and high-speed SerDes interfaces.
• Experience working across optical, mechanical, electrical, and manufacturing disciplines.