Electronics engineer

Contract: Permanent, full-time role. Start date: August 2026 or ASAP. Visa sponsorship available.

About Us

At Wave Photonics, we are building a platform to enable and accelerate the development, mass production and adoption of integrated photonics technologies. Integrated photonics will be crucial in enabling a host of applications ranging from energy-efficient communications, wearable healthcare sensors, rapid diagnostic tools, optical tensor processors, on-chip LiDAR, quantum computing and communication, and many more. We believe that many obstacles in developing these technologies can be removed using a combination of simulation, statistical modelling and optimisation techniques.

Founded in 2021, we have backing from investors in Silicon Valley, the UK, and the EU, and are contributing to multiple projects funded by Innovate UK. We were also successful in winning a prestigious European Innovation Council Accelerator grant to develop solutions for frontier applications of integrated photonics.

We are seeking a highly motivated and enthusiastic Electronics Engineer to join our team and contribute to our mission in accelerating the growth and adoption of integrated photonics technologies.

Role Overview

This is an opportunity for an electronics engineer (typically 3-5 years of hands‑on experience) to join Wave Photonics and build our electronics capability from the ground up. Working closely with our Photonic Integrated Circuit (PIC) engineering team, you will be expanding our capability in modelling and PIC control, owning the hardware stack from requirements through to validated boards, and establishing the internal capability to interface with, drive, and control packaged PICs.

In this role, you will lead the development of our electronics hardware stack from requirements capture through schematic design, PCB layout, board bring‑up, and validation. You will design mixed‑signal and high‑speed PCBs for driving and reading out packaged PICs and develop RF and analogue driver circuits for GHz‑frequency signals on devices such as electro‑optic modulators and high‑speed photodetectors. You will implement microcontroller‑based control systems for feedback and stabilisation loops including temperature controllers and biasing, and FPGA‑based control systems for high‑speed data handling and conversion.

The ideal candidate is practical and curious across disciplines, a hardware engineer who takes ownership from a blank schematic.

Essential Qualifications

• Degree in Electronic Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Physics, or a related discipline
• PCB design experience including high‑speed and mixed‑signal layouts
• Hands‑on analogue circuit design (precision biasing, low‑noise amplification, ADC/DAC interfacing)
• Ability to take a design from schematic through to verified hardware: board bring‑up, test, and debugging
• Proficiency in EDA tools (e.g. Altium Designer, KiCad, Cadence, or equivalent)
• Experience with bench test and measurement equipment (oscilloscopes, spectrum analysers, network analysers, signal generators, etc.)
• Comfortable working across the full hardware development lifecycle in a fast‑paced, cross‑functional team
• Strong software development skills for embedded programming in C
• Python/MATLAB experience for measurement automation, data analysis, test and verification
• Commitment to facilitate effective cross‑team knowledge transfer through clear documentation

Nice to Have / Beneficial

• RF circuit design experience, particularly for driving GHz‑frequency signals
• Experience interfacing with electro‑optic or photonic devices (e.g. Mach‑Zehnder modulators, high‑speed photodetectors, laser drivers)
• Knowledge or experience of packaging with RF electronics
• FPGA‑based data acquisition and control system development
• Experience with HDL (VHDL/Verilog) for low‑level hardware control

Benefits

• £50k - £70k pa., depending on experience
• Company share options plan
• Enhanced annual leave (25 days + bank holidays)
• In‑person working with flexible working options available where possible
• Cycle to work scheme

Work Environment

You will be joining a small, highly technical team in Cambridge of primarily photonics designers, simulation engineers, and software developers. As our first dedicated electronics engineer, you will work directly alongside PIC designers on a daily basis, translating their device requirements into hardware.

This is not a role where electronics is a support function; it is a core capability we are building, and you will have genuine ownership of it.

We see the huge value in creating a team with people from all backgrounds and experiences. Equity, diversity, and inclusion are vital to our mission, and we strongly encourage people of all backgrounds and identities to apply.