Project Engineer, SiPho

Job Description

The project engineer – Silicon Photonics (SiPho) is responsible for driving cross-functional execution of SiPho platform and customer projects from concept through qualification and high-volume manufacturing. This role sits at the intersection of technology, operations, and the customer, ensuring that schedules, deliverables, and quality targets are met while aligning with business and revenue goals. This role requires a high sense of ownership, urgency, and accountability; able to drive issues to closure.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities

Project Ownership & Strategy

• Own end-to-end project planning and execution for SiPho-related platform and customer programs.
• Translate business and customer requirements into clear project objectives, milestones, and success criteria.
• Manage the cooperation of cross-functional teams (e.g., SiPho design, development, integration, device, test, packaging, operations, quality, supply chain, and finance).
• Facilitate regular projects meetings, track actions, drive decisions, and remove roadblocks.\
• Ensure clear roles, ownership, and communication across all stakeholders, including external partners as needed.

Customer & Stakeholder Management

• Serve as a primary project interface to SiPho customers for schedule, deliverables, and high-level technical program topics (in partnership with technical leads).
• Coordinate customer project milestones (samples, data packages, MP readiness) and ensure commitments are met.
• Prepare and deliver status updates, risk summaries, and decision proposals to internal leadership and customer stakeholders.

Technical & Operational Execution

• Work closely with SiPho technical leads (maskcad, R&D, integration, customer solutions) to ensure alignment between technology development and customer/product requirements.
• Coordinate projects activities including design tape-in/tape-out, qualification builds, reliability testing, and ramp to production.

Process Continuous Improvement

• Apply and improve Tower’s standard program management frameworks, tools, and templates for SiPho.
• Capture lessons learned from each phase and drive continuous improvement in execution, communication, and hand-offs.
• Contribute to the ongoing maturation of SiPho platform governance (roadmap reviews, gate reviews, KPIs).

Job Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering, Physics, Materials Science, or related technical discipline required. M.S or PhD preferred;
• 3 years of experience in semiconductor, photonics, or related high-tech industries, with at least 1 year in program or project management.
• Experience with silicon photonics, optical components, or high-speed data center / telecom products strongly preferred.
• Proven track record managing complex, multi-disciplinary programs from concept through production, ideally in a foundry or fab environment.
• Familiarity with wafer fabrication processes, design enablement/PDKs, test & validation, and/or packaging for photonics or RF/analog ICs is a plus.
• Formal training and/or certification in program/project management (e.g., PMP, Agile, Prince2) is a plus.
• Strong ability to lead without direct authority and influence cross-functional teams.
• Excellent program planning, organization, and follow-through; comfortable managing multiple programs in parallel.
• Clear, concise communicator; able to tailor messaging for technical teams, leadership, and customers.
• Strong problem-solving and risk-management skills; comfortable with ambiguity and iterative development.
• Data-driven decision-making with the ability to balance technical, operational, and business trade-offs.

Compensation:

Levels 2 -3 $91,000 - $115,000