Senior Optical Controls Engineer

About This Role

As a Senior Controls Hardware Engineer at Lucidean, guide and technically lead a firmware and controls development team. Own the architecture, design, and validation of high-speed control systems enabling optical-domain signal processing to ensure reliable, high-speed operation for next-generation optical transceivers.

Responsibilities

• Architect and implement high-speed feedback optical control systems using commercial off-the-shelf electronics (FPGAs, microcontrollers, ADCs, DACs)
• Design and validate rapid control loops for optically implemented functions such as polarization control and phase control
• Analyze control stability, bandwidth, and latency using time- and frequency-domain methods (e.g., step response, Bode analysis)
• Guide and review firmware and FPGA implementations developed by junior engineers
• Define control interfaces, performance requirements, and validation methodologies
• Collaborate closely with photonic integrated circuit designers to ensure PIC layouts and actuation mechanisms are compatible with controls hardware
• Lead experimental bring-up, debugging, and long-term stability validation of optical control systems
• Establish and enforce best practices for control code organization, version control, documentation, and experimental traceability to enable reliable debugging, review, and long-term maintainability

Requirements

• Demonstrated experience implementing fast feedback loops (hundreds of kHz to MHz) on physical hardware, typically using FPGA-based or equivalent hard real-time implementations
• Strong intuition for control stability, phase margin, loop bandwidth, and latency
• Practical experience with PID control and frequency-domain analysis
• Direct experience implementing or technically overseeing control systems in FPGA fabric, including timing-critical and latency-bounded control loops
• Familiarity with ADCs, DACs, quantization noise, timing constraints, and mixed-signal systems
• Ability to comprehend physical plants to first principles
• Experience debugging unstable or drifting systems experimentally
• Ability to guide, review, and mentor firmware engineers
• Strong communication skills

Nice to Have

• Experience with optical systems, photonic integrated circuits, and/or RF systems
• Prior technical leadership in small, multidisciplinary teams

Skills

* Required skills

Benefits