Application Engineering Manager - Optical

We are seeking an experienced Applications Engineering Manager to lead a photonics test applications team supporting high-speed optical communications technologies. This role combines technical leadership, people management, and customer engagement, working closely with engineering, product, and sales teams.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead, coach, and develop a team of Applications Engineers supporting photonics test solutions.
• Serve as the senior technical escalation point for complex customer and product issues.
• Drive customer design-ins, product demonstrations, training, and technical workshops.
• Oversee troubleshooting, root-cause analysis, calibration, configuration, and system-level support.
• Support optical transceivers, silicon photonics, and high-speed optical links.
• Work with equipment including BERTs, CDRs, optical sampling scopes, optical spectrum analyzers, and optical power meters.
• Partner with R&D and product teams to communicate customer feedback and influence future product development.
• Develop and improve automated test solutions using Python, C/C++, or similar programming languages.
• Build strong relationships with key technical customers and coordinate support across regional teams.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Photonics, Optical Engineering, Physics, Electrical Engineering, or a related field.
• 8+ years of experience in optical R&D, testing, design, or applications engineering.
• Strong background in high-speed optical communications and photonics testing.
• Hands-on experience with optical test and measurement equipment.
• Knowledge of high-speed Ethernet standards, including IEEE 802.3bs/cd.
• Experience troubleshooting from the system level down to individual components.
• Prior people management or demonstrated technical/team leadership experience.
• Strong customer-facing communication and relationship-building skills.
• Ability to travel to customer sites and industry events as needed.
What I changed: Removed all company-specific branding and culture language, consolidated overlapping responsibilities, and kept the technical keywords that will matter most for sourcing, particularly silicon photonics, optical transceivers, BERT/CDR, optical test equipment, high-speed Ethernet, customer applications, and team leadership.