Lead ASIC Architect – Photonic Control Systems

Your mission

We are seeking an experienced Lead ASIC Architect to define and drive the architecture of our custom ASICs that control next-generation photonic integrated circuits (PICs). In this role, you will be responsible for the high-level design of our ASIC, ensuring it meets functional, performance, and integration requirements. You will lead technical specification, interface definition, and design strategy, while managing and guiding an external ASIC design partner through development, verification, and tape-out.

This is a key leadership position at the intersection of photonics, electronics, and compute acceleration, with direct impact on the performance and scalability of our photonic compute platform.

Key Responsibilities:

• Define the architecture and system-level specifications of the ASIC used to control photonic integrated circuits.
• Own the end-to-end ASIC definition process, including functional blocks, interfaces, clocking, power domains, and configuration flows.
• Collaborate with internal photonic, systems, and software teams to ensure tight integration of ASIC and PIC functionality.
• Manage and technically guide the external ASIC design partner throughout RTL development, verification, physical implementation, and tape-out.
• Review and approve specifications, design deliverables, test plans, and verification results from the external team.
• Identify architectural trade-offs in power, area, performance, and complexity, and make informed decisions.
• Define bring-up and test strategies in collaboration with firmware and hardware validation teams.
• Maintain clear project tracking, timelines, and risk management in the ASIC development lifecycle.
• Stay abreast of industry best practices and trends in mixed-signal and control ASICs for photonic and high-performance compute systems.

Your profile

Required Qualifications:

• Master’s or PhD in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, or related field.
• Proven experience (8+ years) in ASIC architecture and design, with successful tape-outs of complex mixed-signal or control ASICs.
• Deep understanding of digital and analog/mixed-signal ASIC design principles, including RTL design, verification, and synthesis.
• Experience defining system-on-chip (SoC) architectures with multiple IP blocks, interfaces, and control logic.
• Familiarity with photonic systems, high-speed I/O, PLLs, ADCs/DACs, and power/thermal considerations.
• Strong leadership skills, with experience managing or coordinating external design teams or vendors.
• Excellent communication skills and the ability to translate technical requirements across disciplines.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Experience designing ASICs used in photonics, optics, or high-performance compute environments.
• Knowledge of hardware/software co-design, embedded control loops, or calibration algorithms for PICs.
• Experience with foundry interface, PDK usage, and tape-out logistics.
• Familiarity with EDA tools such as Synopsys, Cadence, or Mentor for digital and mixed-signal design flows.

Why us?

• Make growing demand in compute and sustainability go hand in hand
• Work on leading edge photonic AI acceleration technologies.
• Collaborative and innovative work environment.
• Own your work from day one and fast-track your professional growth.
• Work alongside a passionate, international, cross-functional team of experts.
• Collaborate closely with the company’s founders and core leadership team.

About us

Who we are and what we do

Q.ANT is a photonic technology scale-up that emerged from TRUMPF’s R&D labs with deep knowledge in light generation, processing and detection. Since its founding as an independent startup in 2018, the company has been advancing and industrializing photonic and quantum technologies in computing and sensing. Q.ANT\’s photonic approach to sensing and computing have the potential to overcome the limitations of existing technologies and push the boundaries into new application areas ranging from HPC, AI, medical and autonomous vehicles to aerospace, machinery and process industries. Q.ANT is headquartered in Stuttgart, Germany.