Extreme RF Systems Engineer

Back to Careers Extreme RF Systems Engineer RF / Photonics San Francisco Full-time or Internship Apply Now I am hiring an Extreme RF Systems Engineer at Piris Labs, and I want to be direct about why I coined this title. At frequencies approaching 200 GHz, the wave nature of signals becomes impossible to ignore. Material properties are non-trivial. The physics you learned at 10 GHz simply does not transfer. The gap between 10 GHz and 200 GHz is not incremental — it is a different domain entirely. I started my career designing microwave systems at 20–30 GHz back in 2009, then gradually moved into photonics, and eventually worked in the THz regime (2,000–5,000 GHz). That journey taught me that microwave engineers are among the sharpest engineers in the field. The rigor required to operate at these frequencies produces a particular kind of problem solver. I am genuinely excited to bring one onto our team. We have room for both interns and senior engineers. What matters is depth. Why this role matters: Scaling optical interconnects requires tight RF/photonic co-design. At 140+ GHz, material properties, loss mechanisms, and packaging constraints become first-order system effects. The performance of our electro-optic modulators is directly gated by the quality of RF design at this frequency range. This role shapes that. RESPONSIBILITIES Design and optimize RF structures and electrodes operating at 140+ GHz for electro-optic modulator integration Co-design RF and optical systems with direct impact on modulator bandwidth, drive voltage, and insertion loss Model high-frequency effects including skin depth, conductivity, dispersion, and substrate loss Run full-wave EM simulations using tools such as FDTD, Tidy3D, HFSS, or equivalent numerical solvers Analyze and optimize RF signal integrity, impedance matching, bandwidth, and power efficiency Work with packaging and system teams on RF layout constraints, interconnect parasitics, and integration tradeoffs Use and interpret high-frequency measurements including VNA data, calibration flows, and on-wafer probing at mm-wave frequencies REQUIREMENTS PhD in Physics, Applied Physics, or Electrical Engineering required; postdoctoral experience in a directly relevant area is a strong plus Graduates from MIT, Stanford, Harvard, Caltech, or programs with comparable research depth are encouraged to apply Strong RF design experience at 100+ GHz, with 140+ GHz familiarity strongly preferred Deep understanding of high-frequency material modeling: skin depth, conductivity models, dielectric dispersion, and substrate effects Solid knowledge of electro-optic materials and RF-to-optical coupling mechanisms — TFLN, InP, or silicon photonics platforms First-principles grasp of loss in both RF and optical domains and how they interact at the device level Experience with full-wave EM simulation tools and comfort validating simulations against measurement Hands-on experience with microwave measurement: high-frequency VNA, calibration techniques, and on-wafer probing Understanding of RF sources, including linewidth, phase noise, and high-speed driver architectures Deep understanding of packaging constraints at mm-wave frequencies: bondwire parasitics, flip-chip integration, thermal effects, and electromagnetic interactions Deep understanding of high-speed optical modulators: traveling-wave, lumped, and segmented architectures Deep understanding of optical packaging, flip-chip bonding, and co-packaged optics integration Deep understanding of nanofabrication processes and fabrication tolerances at sub-micron scale Deep understanding of CPO and co-packaged interconnect architectures Ability to bridge device-level physics to full system performance at the transceiver level Compensation: $100,000 to $200,000 depending on experience, plus equity, 401(k), and health insurance. Internship compensation discussed during the interview process. alik@pirislabs.io Apply Now