Job Title: NPI Engineer, Optics and Cables
Location: Santa Clara, CA
Ladder: Hardware Design
Travel: Approximately 30%
Role Overview
In high-speed networking, cutting-edge ASICs perform only as well as the optical path they connect to. As a Hardware Product Engineer for Optics and Cables, you own the technical product lifecycle of every optics and cable component in our systems. You bridge the gap between system design and factory-level execution.
You will serve as the technical gatekeeper for all of the processes related to optical products as the products move from design through to high volume manufacturing. You will define the optics qualification, cleaning, inspection, and reliability standards that prevent field failures and ensure Nexthop AI stays at the leading edge of optical performance. This role is highly focused on bridging early New Product Introduction (NPI) engineering with manufacturing execution, establishing the blueprints for how our complex optical portfolios are built, tested, and scaled globally.
Key Responsibilities
1. Optical Path Integrity & Standards
- Interconnect Integrity Lead: Establish the "North Star" for the optical integrity of our systems through the manufacturing and assembly process. Define what we measure, how we inspect it at the factory, and why it's vital for product quality and long-term link stability.
- NPI-to-Manufacturing Process: Author detailed assembly and manufacturing procedures for inside-the-box architectures, including fiber tray, flyover cables and Co-Package Optics (CPO). Ensure early NPI builds stabilize before transferring packages to factory operation teams for execution.
- Cleaning & Handling Authority: Architect the end-to-end cleaning, handling and inspection protocols for optical assemblies during production. You define the automated inspection criteria (leverage protocols such as IEC) to ensure zero-defect ports leave the vendor or our contract manufacturer.
- Design Accountability: Work closely and directly with mechanical, thermal and optics engineers, ensuring port layouts and cable management allow for proper bend radii, cleaning access, ease for manufacturing and thermal headroom.
- Optical Module Qualification: Assist Nexthop’s engineering team in defining and driving the optics module qualification process. This includes translating end-to-end link quality requirements, such as target BER and required optical performance, into specific device and system level tests with clearly defined pass/fail criteria.
2. Technical Vendor Strategy & Audits
- Supplier Quality Management: Work with both Nexthop’s engineering team and optical suppliers to specify and maintain production controls on all optical subassemblies that Nexthop sources from external suppliers. Evaluate and identify new optics and cable vendors based on technical performance and roadmaps. Validate components from suppliers for compatibility, reliability, and potential dual-sourcing strategies.
- Technical Audits: Lead deep-dive technical audits of vendor facilities, assessing and improving upon their laser burn-in processes, fiber termination quality, and cleanroom discipline.
- Advanced Technology Scouting: Evaluate and vet emerging interconnect solutions (e.g., Co-Packaged Optics, Near Packaged Optics, Active Copper, next-gen DSPs) to determine if they fit Nexthop’s roadmap, ensuring readiness for broad rack-level deployment.
3. Factory Quality & Reliability
- Incoming Quality Control (IQC): Define the technical gate for all optical components entering the factory. Establish golden standards to ensure incoming modules aren't just within spec but optimized for our systems.
- Long-Term Reliability: Design and execute qualification plans for optics, including thermal cycling, high-humidity stress, and connector mating-cycle endurance. Implement manufacturing traceability, quality dashboards, and reporting.
- Final Signal Sign-off: Serve as the final technical authority for optical performance data during NPI. You approve the test reports before the first unit is cleared for shipment whether at the vendor or down the line at the contract manufacturer.
Required Qualifications
- Experience: 8+ years in Hardware Engineering or Optical Product Engineering, specifically with high-speed (400G+) transceivers and cables.
- Domain Expertise: Expert-level knowledge of optical connector types (MPO, LC, EBO), fiber physics, and transceiver architectures (QSFP-DD, OSFP). Experience with high-speed switches.
- Technical Authority: Proven track record of auditing vendors and establishing factory-level optical test methodologies and transitioning complex lines to overseas Contract Manufacturers.
- Tooling Knowledge: Proficiency with optical scopes, bit error rate testers (BERT), and automated fiber inspection systems and product fixturing
- Education: BS/MS in Optical Engineering, Physics, Electrical Engineering, or a related field.
What Success Looks Like
- The Clean Optics: You establish a factory process where "dirty fiber" or "bad optics" failures are at time 0, not at the customer site. You hand off this process to and teach quality engineering the importance of these processes and guidelines.
- Vendor Excellence: You transition our supply base from commodity vendors to strategic partners who meet our specific, rigorous technical standards.
- Future-Proofed I/O: Your scouting ensures Nexthop AI is always six months ahead of the industry on the next generation of interconnect density.
