Senior Staff Applications Engineer

Location: Bristol (Bradley Stokes)

Our Team:
Semtech’s Signal Integrity Products Applications Team is a group of experienced, passionate and talented engineers tasked to support and deliver industry-leading integrated circuits.

The Applications Team provide innovative solutions to enable PON market by providing exemplary customer experience through our reference designs, documentation and technical support. We enable our customers and partners to achieve a high standard of product performance, overcoming complex problems in their system to accelerate their time to market.

Internally, we provide guidance to cross-functional teams to ensure we design best-in-class products that customers want to buy.

Job Summary:
The Application Engineer is responsible for supporting our PON communications business in delivering high quality, customer-focused OLT PON products to market.

The Application Engineering function supports all phases of the product lifecycle, from Product Definition through NPI development, production validation, and end-of-life, serving as the primary interface with customers and industry stakeholders.

This is a hands-on engineering position focused on technical validation, performance optimization and world-class customer support.

Responsibilities:
Technical Leadership

• Provide technical leadership for Applications Engineering within the PON OLT product line, including project planning and mentoring/directing junior Applications Engineers.
• Lead and influence within your area of expertise while maintaining broad technical knowledge to communicate effectively with relevant team members.
• Foster strong internal and external networks, collaborating across multiple teams to achieve business objectives.
• Develop and maintain collaborative working relationships with designers, engineers, marketing and sales teams.
• Work closely with technical teams to troubleshoot issues and optimize silicon performance.

NPI Project Execution

• Lead the design, development, and implementation of HSPON next generation OLT combo products in applications.
• Participate in silicon verification activities for NPI development process by designing and executing experiments to prove and optimize the silicon performance as they are intended to be used in customers' applications.
• Coordinate and schedule application designs, collateral, and RDK releases to effectively manage project risks and timelines.
• Perform schematic capture and layout design for high-speed PCBs for optical communication ICs up to 50Gbps.
• Engage and lead key stakeholder groups throughout the construction and delivery of solutions.

Customer-Facing Activities

• Design reference application kits to enable customer sampling and optimize performance of application prototypes, and and maximize the likelihood of customers achieving a correct PCB design on the first iteration.
• Provide timely customer support and associated technical solutions to enable design-ins, in close association with field applications and sales teams.
• Perform fault finding, debugging and resolution of internal and customer issues in a timely fashion Support PLMs and represent Semtech to the outside world, by attending trade shows, presenting to customers and customer visits.
• Provide guidance and recommendations to develop business cases, balancing technical and commercial risks.
• Act as prime contact for internal/external stakeholder relationships.

Industry Standards & Market Development

• Stay abreast of industry technical and business trends through benchmarking and/or participation in professional associations.
• Strengthen Semtech’s competitive position by anticipating market and technology trends and proactively implementing appropriate changes.
• Develop and maintain in-depth knowledge of Semtech’s products.

Strategic Problem Solving & Analysis

• Apply expertise and creative thinking to address unique or ambiguous situations and solve multiple, interdependent, complex problems.
• Break down strategic problems and analyze data and information to provide insights and recommendations.
• Produce and maintain project documentation, including application notes and reference application kits.
• Take on broader responsibilities and accountabilities as required to support evolving business needs.

Minimum Qualifications:

• BSc in Electronic Engineering or similar discipline, with related work experience.
• Minimum 2 years of proven experience in the microelectronics (IC) or Optical Communications industry.
• Good understanding or experience of designing/troubleshooting high speed printed circuit board (PCB) design.
• The ability to work independently and as part of a team in a collaborative team environment.
• Strong problem-solving skills to troubleshoot, perform root cause analysis, and deliver timely fixes.
• Excellent communication skills and experience in similar customer support role.

Desired Knowledge, Skills and Experiences:

• A higher degree in optical related engineering, Masters or PhD.
• Experience in using Ansys HFSS 3D EM Simulation Software or equivalent.
• Experience in the measurement and interpretation of S-parameters to achieve robust signal integrity.
• The ability to support complex mixed signal products.
• Experience of delivering technical documentation to a high standard.
• Demonstrate initiative, technical aptitude and creativity, is results oriented and can flexibly manage time, priorities and multiple projects.
• Experience of working/communicating with the Chinese market would be highly desirable.