Photonics Product Design Lead – AR Waveguide Displays

About the Role 

We Deliver Material Innovation That Changes The World.   Applied Materials solutions enable virtually every new chip and advanced display in the world. 

We are looking for a Photonics Product Design Lead to support custom waveguide display product definition and specifications and manage the waveguide design roadmap for the Photonics Platforms Business.  This role is pivotal in externally aligning product definition and timeline with customers and internally with design engineers and production teams.  From within the waveguide design team, you will partner with process engineering, manufacturing equipment engineering, production, program management and business development teams to deliver the world-leading AR display platform that will enable high-performance and excellent aesthetics see-thru displays to enable mainstream smart glasses (100M units per year). 

Customer-Facing Product Design 

• Lead technical scoping and alignment for Custom AR Display products for customers 

• Write Product Requirements Documents for different customers and market segments 

• Act as a technical lead partnered with an international Business Development team to intake new opportunities and translate customer requests into product offerings 

• Clearly communicate internally customers’ requirements, priorities, areas of flexibility and inflexibility 

• Clearly communicate externally our technical capabilities, product offerings and roadmap 

• Internally and externally brainstorm solutions to customers’ technical problems 

• Collaborate with design engineers, prototyping and production teams to decide product design scope and deliver winning prototypes to customers 

Waveguide Design Roadmap  

• Maintain custom waveguide display design feature set and roadmap 

• Communicate status and technology milestones for critical areas of the roadmap 

• Partner with waveguide design, metrology, process engineering, manufacturing equipment engineering, production, program management and business development teams 

Cross-functional Leadership 

• Partner with engineering, design, and marketing teams to translate technical capabilities into compelling product features 

• Communicate system and end-user benefits internally and externally 

• Communicate product vision and priorities to executive leadership and stakeholders. 

Qualifications 

• Education: MS/PhD in Photonics or Optical Sciences 

• Experience:  

• 10+ years in nano-photonics design in industry, including 5+ years in diffractive waveguide and AR/MR see-thru display design 

• Proven track record of designing, building and debugging AR/MR displays 

• Skills:  

• Excellent strategic thinking, communication, and leadership skills 

• Strong understanding of waveguide optics and AR display architectures 

• Strong understanding of Display Performance specifications and practical correlation to user experience 

• Practical hands-on experience with image quality assessment and see-thru artifacts unique to diffractive waveguides 

Preferred Qualifications 

• Proven track record of leading design and yield improvements from prototype through XVT to production 

• Strong understanding of Cosmetics, Aesthetics and Mechanical specifications of AR displays 

• Experience with AI Glasses or Mixed-Reality Glasses system architecture, hardware requirements and user experience 

• Familiarity with global supply chain for optical components and consumer electronics 

• Ability to thrive in fast-paced, ambiguous environments and drive clarity across teams