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Salary: USD 250,000 - 300,000 / annual
Crusoe is building vertically integrated AI infrastructure, owning the full stack from power generation to cloud services. The company is solving the energy bottleneck in AI compute through an energy-first approach.
As Senior Staff Optics Engineer for Network Qualification & Strategy, you will own the technical strategy, qualification, and lifecycle management of optical transceivers and interconnect technologies across Crusoe's global data center fleet. This highly visible, cross-functional role directly influences network reliability, cost, and scalability at a critical moment when optics choices (400G, 800G, and beyond) are among the most consequential decisions in AI infrastructure build-outs.
You will report into Networking Engineering and have the opportunity to shape optics strategy from the ground up as Crusoe scales.
Key responsibilities include:
- Design and run end-to-end qualification processes for optical transceivers, cables, and interconnects (DAC/AOC/pluggable optics), including signal integrity, thermal, interoperability, and long-term reliability testing
- Define Crusoe's multi-generation optics strategy (400G → 800G → 1.6T), evaluating emerging technologies like linear pluggable optics (LPO), co-packaged optics (CPO), and coherent DWDM
- Own vendor and supply chain relationships, driving RFQs, cost negotiations, second-source strategies, and supply chain risk mitigation
- Lead root cause analysis for optics-related field failures, partnering with vendors and internal ops teams
- Collaborate with SDN, physical network design, data center operations, and procurement teams
- Represent Crusoe in industry standards bodies and multi-source agreements (MSAs) for optical interconnects
- Build qualification test plans, acceptance criteria, and technical documentation
- Partner with finance and supply chain on optics cost modeling and capacity planning
The ideal candidate is a deeply technical optics/networking expert equally comfortable characterizing signal integrity in a lab or negotiating multi-year supply agreements in a boardroom.
Requirements:
- Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Physics, or related technical field (Master's or PhD preferred)
- 10+ years of experience in optical networking with direct hands-on experience qualifying transceivers/optics for hyperscale or large-scale data center environments
- Deep technical expertise in optical interconnect technologies (SR/DR/FR/LR optics, DAC/AOC, coherent DWDM) and signal integrity fundamentals for high-speed Ethernet (100G/400G/800G)
- Proven experience building and running hardware qualification programs, including test plan design, lab test execution, and statistical reliability analysis
- Track record of managing vendor relationships and technical negotiations with optics/component suppliers at scale
- Strong understanding of data center network architectures (leaf-spine, rail-optimized GPU fabrics) and how optics choices impact overall fabric design
- Excellent cross-functional communication skills with experience influencing engineering, procurement, and executive stakeholders
- Demonstrated ability to operate independently in a fast-paced, high-growth environment with evolving priorities
Bonus qualifications:
- Experience with AI/ML cluster networking (InfiniBand, RoCEv2) and GPU-to-GPU interconnect requirements
- Familiarity with co-packaged optics (CPO) or linear-drive pluggable optics (LPO) architectures
- Active participation in industry standards bodies (OIF, IEEE 802.3, CWDM8/QSFP-DD MSA groups)
- Experience with automated optics testing/validation frameworks and telemetry-driven fleet health monitoring
- Prior experience in a hyperscaler, cloud provider, or optical component supplier environment
