Senior Staff Optics Engineer, Network Qualification & Strategy

Crusoe is on a mission to accelerate the abundance of energy and intelligence. As the only vertically integrated AI infrastructure company built from the ground up, we own and operate each layer of the stack — from electrons to tokens — to power the world's most ambitious AI workloads. When you join Crusoe, you join a team that is building the future, faster.

We're in the midst of the greatest industrial revolution of our time. The demand for AI compute is boundless, and power is a bottleneck. We're solving that — with an energy-first approach that makes AI infrastructure better for the world and faster for the people innovating with AI.

We're looking for problem-solving, opportunity-finding teammates with a sense of urgency, who believe in the scale of our ambition and thrive on a path not fully paved — people who want to grow their careers alongside a team of experts across energy, manufacturing, data center construction, and cloud services.

If you want to do the most meaningful work of your career, help our customers and partners advance their AI strategies, and be part of a high-performing team that believes in each other, come build with us at Crusoe.

About This Role:

Crusoe is building the physical and software backbone that powers the world's most demanding AI workloads, and our networking team sits at the center of that mission — designing and operating the high-performance fabrics that connect thousands of GPUs into unified compute clusters. As Sr. Staff Optics Engineer, Network Qualification & Strategy, you will own the technical strategy, qualification, and lifecycle management of optical transceivers and interconnect technologies across Crusoe's data center fleet. This is a highly visible, cross-functional role that directly influences network reliability, cost, and scalability at a moment when optics choices (400G, 800G, and beyond) are among the most consequential decisions in AI infrastructure build-outs.

The ideal candidate is a deeply technical optics/networking expert who thrives at the intersection of hardware engineering, vendor strategy, and operational rigor — someone equally comfortable in a lab characterizing signal integrity as they are in a boardroom negotiating a multi-year supply agreement. This is a full-time position reporting into Networking Engineering, with the opportunity to shape optics strategy from the ground up as Crusoe scales its global fleet.

What You'll Be Working On:

- Optics Qualification Program: Design and run the end-to-end qualification process for optical transceivers, cables, and interconnects (DAC/AOC/pluggable optics), including signal integrity, thermal, interoperability, and long-term reliability testing.

- Technology Roadmap & Strategy: Define Crusoe's multi-generation optics strategy (400G → 800G → 1.6T), evaluating emerging technologies like linear pluggable optics (LPO), co-packaged optics (CPO), and coherent DWDM for scale-out and scale-across fabrics.

- Vendor & Supply Chain Management: Own relationships with optics and component vendors, driving RFQs, cost negotiations, second-source strategies, and supply chain risk mitigation to ensure availability at scale.

- Failure Analysis & RCA: Lead root cause analysis for optics-related field failures, partnering with vendors and internal ops teams to drive corrective actions and improve fleet-wide reliability.

- Cross-Functional Partnership: Collaborate closely with SDN, physical network design, data center operations, and procurement teams to align optics selection with fabric architecture and deployment timelines.

- Standards & Interoperability: Represent Crusoe in industry standards bodies and multi-source agreements (MSAs) relevant to optical interconnects, ensuring the company's requirements are reflected in evolving specs.

- Documentation & Enablement: Build qualification test plans, acceptance criteria, and technical documentation that scale across the organization and inform build partners and vendors.

- Cost & Capacity Modeling: Partner with finance and supply chain to model optics cost curves and capacity needs against Crusoe's data center growth plans.

What You'll Bring to the Team:

- Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Physics, or a related technical field (Master's or PhD preferred).

- 10+ years of experience in optical networking, with direct hands-on experience qualifying transceivers/optics for hyperscale or large-scale data center environments.

- Deep technical expertise in optical interconnect technologies (SR/DR/FR/LR optics, DAC/AOC, coherent DWDM) and signal integrity fundamentals for high-speed Ethernet (100G/400G/800G).

- Proven experience building and running hardware qualification programs, including test plan design, lab test execution, and statistical reliability analysis.

- Track record of managing vendor relationships and technical negotiations with optics/component suppliers at scale.

- Strong understanding of data center network architectures (leaf-spine, rail-optimized GPU fabrics) and how optics choices impact overall fabric design.

- Excellent cross-functional communication skills, with experience influencing engineering, procurement, and executive stakeholders.

- Demonstrated ability to operate independently in a fast-paced, high-growth environment with evolving priorities.

Bonus Points:

- Experience with AI/ML cluster networking (InfiniBand, RoCEv2) and GPU-to-GPU interconnect requirements.

- Familiarity with co-packaged optics (CPO) or linear-drive pluggable optics (LPO) architectures.

- Active participation in industry standards bodies (OIF, IEEE 802.3, CWDM8/QSFP-DD MSA groups).

- Experience with automated optics testing/validation frameworks and telemetry-driven fleet health monitoring.

- Prior experience in a hyperscaler, cloud provider, or optical component supplier environment.

Benefits:

- Competitive compensation and equity packages

- Restricted Stock Units

- Paid time off, paid holidays & leave of absence programs

- Comprehensive health, dental & vision insurance

- Employer contributions to HSA account

- Paid parental leave

- Paid life insurance, short-term and long-term disability

- Professional development & tuition reimbursement

- Mental health & wellness support

- Commuter benefits (parking & transit)

- Cell phone stipend

- 401(k) Retirement plan with company match up to 4% of salary

- Volunteer time off

- Global travel insurance & emergency assistance

- Daily meals allowance

- Additional perks & programs specific to location

Compensation Range

Compensation will be paid in the range of up to $250,000 - $300,000 + bonus. Restricted Stock Units are included in all offers. Compensation to be determined by the applicant's knowledge, education, and abilities, as well as internal equity and alignment with market data.

Crusoe is an Equal Opportunity Employer. Employment decisions are made without regard to race, color, religion, disability, genetic information, pregnancy, citizenship, marital status, sex/gender, sexual preference/ orientation, gender identity, age, veteran status, national origin, or any other status protected by law or regulation.