Ayo is a venture-backed early-stage startup that will radically re-define how humanity performs compute for AI. Our photonic processors will provide orders of magnitude improvement in speed and power efficiency in comparison to conventional digital compute platforms by taking advantage of the natural parallelism, speed and energy efficiency of light.
We are seeking a photonics design engineer to serve as a core team member who will be among the first employees of the company. The engineer will expand Ayo’s component library in Ayo’s custom InP platform; design, analyze, and test photonic circuits and sub-circuits; and support the electronics / systems teams to design and bring-up prototypes. As a core member of the photonics team, they will participate in all phases of the design-tapeout-test-analyze cycle. The ideal candidate has strong fundamentals in integrated optics, experience designing and laying out integrated optical devices or systems, and has a desire to explore the limits of what is possible in an exciting new integrated optics platform.
Responsibilities:
Design/optimize integrated optical components
Lay out photonic integrated circuits that test devices, demonstrate sub-system capabilities, and are full prototype chips
Collect and analyze test data from test circuits
Develop and maintain models of components, informed by underlying physics and measured data
Provide expertise and support to other Ayo team members
Qualifications:
PhD in optics, electrical engineering, physics or related field with a focus on integrated photonics
Experience designing, simulating, and testing integrated photonic devices
Experience using commercial simulation tools (such as Ansys/Lumerical, Tidy3D, Rsoft or similar)
Has taped out at least once
Proficiency with Python
Preferred Qualifications:
Experience with script-based device/circuit layout
Experience designing and laying out photonic integrated circuits
Experience probing/testing photonic integrated circuits
Experience designing lasers
Contact:
Mike Gould ([email protected])
Skills Required
- PhD in optics, electrical engineering, physics or related field with a focus on integrated photonics
- Experience designing, simulating, and testing integrated photonic devices
- Experience using commercial simulation tools
- Has taped out at least once
- Proficiency with Python
Ayo Seminconductor Compensation & Benefits Highlights
The following summarizes recurring compensation and benefits themes identified from responses generated by popular LLMs to common candidate questions about Ayo Seminconductor and has not been reviewed or approved by Ayo Seminconductor.
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Equity Value & Accessibility — Job postings describe competitive salary plus equity aligned with stage and seniority, and highlight meaningful ownership and impact for early team members. Early‑hire framing (being among the first employees) indicates tangible equity participation alongside cash compensation.
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Healthcare Strength — Some materials reference health, dental, and vision coverage being included, indicating core medical benefits are available. Although specifics are not published, this points to baseline healthcare support in the package.
Ayo Seminconductor Insights
What We Do
Ayo is a venture-backed early-stage startup that will radically re-define how humanity performs compute for AI. Our photonic processors will provide orders of magnitude improvement in speed and power efficiency in comparison to conventional digital compute platforms by taking advantage of the natural parallelism, speed and energy efficiency of light.
