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Salary: USD 150,000 - 220,000 / annual
K2 Space is building the largest and highest-power satellites ever flown, backed by over $1 billion in funding and $1 billion in signed contracts across commercial and US government customers. The company is mass-producing advanced satellite platforms for missions from LEO to deep space, with multiple launches planned for 2027 and scaling to 100 satellites per year.
As the first Photonics Test & Automation Engineer on K2's founding photonics team, you will define how K2 tests photonics and build the lab infrastructure and software that characterizes photonic integrated circuits (PICs)—from wafers and die to packaged modules. 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.
Key responsibilities include:
- 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, plus a shared data pipeline for design, packaging, and reliability engineers
- Interface PIC test stations with custom free-space optical testbeds (beam delivery, steering, spatial light modulators, phase screens, cameras, wavefront sensors) through shared instrument control and synchronization
- Characterize passive and active photonic devices (waveguides, couplers, filters, modulators, photodetectors, heaters) including high-speed electro-optic measurements
- Own design-for-test standards (test-structure library, probe and fiber-array conventions); correlate measurements with simulation and maintain statistical process control
- Build portable, automated setups for in-situ measurements during radiation, thermal-vacuum, and burn-in campaigns
- Scale test from single devices to many (parallel test, test-time reduction, operator procedures) and hand off to production at constellation volume
- Mentor engineers and technicians; set lab standards for safety, calibration, and documentation
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. Your work will connect bench-based PIC test stations to custom free-space optical testbeds and channel emulators so device and channel measurements run in one integrated framework.
REQUIREMENTS:
- Bachelor's degree in electrical engineering, physics, optics, or related technical field (or equivalent education and experience)
- 5+ years of hands-on experience testing photonic integrated circuits or optoelectronic components (probing, fiber alignment, optical test equipment)
- Built automated test stations from scratch, with Python for instrument control, test frameworks, and data analysis
- Hands-on free-space optics experience (alignment, beam characterization, cameras or wavefront sensors)
NICE TO HAVE:
- Advanced degree (MS or PhD) in related field
- Integrating free-space optical setups into automated test; writing test plans and defining test structures with designers
- Atmospheric turbulence, adaptive optics, or free-space optical communications experience, especially turbulence emulation with spatial light modulators or phase screens
- High-speed electro-optic characterization to 50+ GHz (lightwave component analyzers, VNAs, BERTs, sampling oscilloscopes)
- Experience with commercial photonic probers and automated test equipment (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
Note: ITAR export control restrictions apply; must be a U.S. person or eligible for federally issued export control license.
