Senior Photonics Test & Automation Engineer

The Role

K2's ambitions extend beyond the satellite bus. By designing and operating our own spacecraft and regularly manifesting hardware to orbit, K2 is uniquely positioned to develop, test, and deploy ambitious, “limit-of-physics” optical and photonic payloads across MEO, GEO, cislunar, and deep space on unprecedented timelines. The satellite bus is the platform – the payloads are the mission.

As the first Photonics Test & Automation Engineer on K2's founding photonics team, your role is to define how K2 tests photonics: you will build the lab and the software that turn photonic integrated circuits (PICs), from wafers and die to packaged modules, into data the team trusts and uses to improve future product generations. You will own photonic test from first-silicon bring-up through production screening, working alongside PIC designers, packaging engineers, and K2's ASIC and post-silicon validation teams. Our photonics are tested on the bench and through free space, so you will also connect PIC test stations to custom free-space optical testbeds and channel emulators so device and channel measurements run in one framework. In your first year, you will stand up an automated PIC test station from the ground up and set the standard every photonic part K2 builds is characterized against.

Responsibilities

• Design, build, and own automated wafer-, die-, and module-level PIC test stations, including optical and RF probing, fiber-array alignment, and swept-laser measurements.
• Develop modular, reusable test automation software and instrument drivers in Python, with version control, CI, and AI-assisted tooling, and a shared data pipeline used by design, packaging, and reliability engineers.
• Interface PIC test stations with custom free-space optical testbeds (beam delivery and steering, spatial light modulators and phase screens, cameras and wavefront sensors) through shared instrument control, synchronization, and data.
• Characterize passive and active photonic devices (waveguides, couplers, filters, modulators, photodetectors, and heaters) including high-speed electro-optic measurements.
• Own design-for-test standards (test-structure library, probe and fiber-array conventions); correlate measurements with simulation, feed them into the team's design automation and modeling flow, and maintain statistical process control and gauge R&R.
• Build portable, automated setups for in-situ measurements during radiation, thermal-vacuum, and burn-in campaigns with K2's reliability and radiation-effects engineers.
• Scale test from one device to many (parallel test, test-time reduction, and operator procedures) and hand off to production at constellation volume.
• Mentor engineers and technicians, and set lab standards for safety, calibration, and documentation.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in electrical engineering, physics, optics, or a related technical field, or an equivalent combination of education and experience.
• 5+ years of hands-on experience testing photonic integrated circuits or optoelectronic components (probing, fiber alignment, and optical test equipment).
• Built automated test stations from scratch, with Python for instrument control, test frameworks, and data analysis.
• Hands-on free-space optics (alignment, beam characterization, cameras or wavefront sensors).

Nice to Have

• Advanced degree (MS or PhD) in a related field.
• Integrating free-space optical setups into automated test, and writing test plans and defining test structures with designers.
• Atmospheric turbulence, adaptive optics, or free-space optical communications, especially turbulence emulation with spatial light modulators or phase screens, or outdoor and field optical testing.
• High-speed electro-optic characterization to 50+ GHz (lightwave component analyzers, VNAs, BERTs, sampling oscilloscopes).
• Experience with commercial photonic probers and automated test equipment (e.g., FormFactor, MPI, ficonTEC).
• Polarization-diverse and phase-sensitive optical measurements.
• Environmental, thermal-vacuum, burn-in, or radiation testing of space hardware.
• Production test, manufacturing execution systems, or SQL test databases.

Compensation and Benefits:

• Base salary range for this role is $150,000 - $220,000 + equity in the company
• Salary will be based on several factors including, but not limited to: knowledge and skills, education, and experience level
• Comprehensive benefits package including paid time off, medical/dental/vision coverage, life insurance, paid parental leave, and many other perks