K

K2 Space

Provides cost-effective, high-capability satellite buses

Senior Serdes Characterization & Post-Silicon Validation Engineer

Hardware Validation & TestingConfirmed live in the last 24 hours
Full-timeLos Angeles, CA, USAIn-person

About the Job

Requirements

  • A BS or MS in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, or a related field.
  • At least 5 years of high-speed SerDes characterization, post-silicon validation, signal integrity, or related experience.
  • Strong understanding of high-speed serial-link fundamentals, including NRZ/PAM4 signaling, equalization, clock and data recovery, jitter, bit error rate, channel loss, and link budgets.
  • Hands-on experience with high-bandwidth oscilloscopes, bit error rate testers, pattern generators, vector network analyzers, time-domain reflectometry/transmission, and high-speed electrical measurement equipment.
  • Experience with eye diagrams, jitter decomposition, bathtub curves, bit error rate testing, stressed-eye testing, and receiver sensitivity characterization.
  • Strong understanding of package and printed circuit board channels, insertion/return loss, crosstalk, reflections, and channel de-embedding.
  • Experience developing automated characterization environments using Python or similar scripting languages and instrument-control interfaces.
  • Strong debugging skills across silicon, package, printed circuit board, firmware, and system boundaries.
  • Ability to work closely with SerDes IP/design, signal integrity, package, board, firmware, and digital teams.

Responsibilities

  • Lead post-silicon bring-up and characterization of high-speed NRZ and PAM4 SerDes, including 112G-class interfaces.
  • Develop and execute electrical characterization plans across lanes, data rates, voltage, temperature, channels, and operating conditions.
  • Characterize transmitter eye quality, jitter, output amplitude, linearity, equalization, receiver sensitivity, bit error rate, bathtub curves, clock and data recovery performance, and link margin.
  • Validate transmitter and receiver equalization, including feed-forward equalization, continuous-time linear equalization, decision feedback equalization, adaptation, and link-training behavior.
  • Perform bit error rate and stress testing across representative and worst-case channels.
  • Debug complex link issues spanning SerDes IP, clocks, power, package, printed circuit board/channel, firmware, and digital logic.
  • Correlate silicon measurements with SerDes models, simulations, and channel/signal-integrity analysis.
  • Partner with firmware and digital teams on SerDes configuration, initialization, diagnostics, adaptation, and system-level link bring-up.
  • Develop automated characterization and regression environments for instrument control, data collection, analysis, and reporting.
  • Support the transition from chip-level SerDes characterization to product integration and system-level validation.
  • Contribute to building the high-speed validation lab, equipment, test infrastructure, measurement methodology, and automation from the ground up.

Desired Qualifications

  • Experience with 112G+ PAM4 SerDes characterization and validation.
  • Experience with Ethernet, PCIe, JESD204, Interlaken, or chip-to-chip interfaces.
  • Experience with compliance testing and high-speed interface standards.
  • Familiarity with SerDes behavioral/channel models and simulation-to-measurement correlation.
  • Experience with SerDes IP integration and validation from third-party IP vendors.
  • Experience with advanced package and high-loss printed circuit board channels.
  • Familiarity with high-speed clocking, phase-locked loops, reference-clock jitter, and power-supply noise effects on SerDes performance.
  • Experience with automated process, voltage, and temperature characterization and large-scale measurement data analysis.

About the Company

K2 Space

Provides cost-effective, high-capability satellite buses

K2 Space provides cost-effective, high-capability satellite buses—the main structure and systems of a satellite excluding the payload. Buses include core subsystems such as power, attitude control, propulsion, thermal management, and communications, and are modular for customers to add their own payloads, enabling large satellites at a lower cost. The company focuses on the bus to decouple payload costs from spacecraft, leveraging an experienced team from SpaceX and Blue Origin to offer affordable, scalable platforms for commercial, scientific, and defense missions. Its goal is to unlock ambitious space missions by making high-capability satellites affordable and expanding opportunities in space exploration and development.

Company size
201-500
Company stage
Series D
Total funding
$943.6M
Headquarters
Torrance, CA
Founded
2022

Recently Posted Jobs

Explore more opportunities at K2 Space

See more jobs