Technical Program Manager

Avicena is a privately held company developing microLED-based ultra-low power high bandwidth interconnects for chip-to-chip communications. This technology will revolutionize High-Performance (HPC) and Cloud computing, as well as other industries where low power interconnects are critical like camera sensors, autonomous vehicles, and aerospace. Avicena is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California with a development center in Edinburgh, Scotland. The company was founded in 2019 by leading technologists from the optical networking industry with a track record of delivering breakthrough products. ( www.avicena.tech )

About the role

We’re looking for a Senior Technical Program Manager / Engineering Manager to lead a team of ~8 engineers working on:

• Failure analysis (FA) and reliability
• Test development (hardware, software, data)
• Optical and opto-mechanical packaging

You’ll own programme delivery and people leadership, and you’ll play a central role in coordinating work between Edinburgh and headquarters in Sunnyvale, CA.

Responsibilities

Leadership & team development

• Line-manage, mentor and grow a multidisciplinary team.
• Set clear priorities, goals and development plans.
• Support hiring and help shape the engineering culture in Edinburgh.

Program ownership

• Build and manage integrated plans for FA, reliability, test and packaging projects.
• Track milestones, manage risks and dependencies, and communicate status to UK and US leadership.
• Coordinate external partners for test, packaging and qualification activities.
• Act as the primary engineering interface with Sunnyvale HQ.
• Align roadmaps, priorities and resources across time zones.
• Run effective cross-site reviews, handovers and decision forums.
• Oversee FA and reliability strategies, test plans and qualification activities.
• Guide development of scalable electrical/optical tests and data flows from R&D through to production.
• Support optical / opto-mechanical packaging design, build and qualification with the specialist engineers.
• Ensure learnings from test, FA and field use feed back into design and process.

Ways of working & quality

• Drive clear requirements, design reviews, change control and documentation.
• Promote data-driven decisions and good experimental practice.

Qualifications

• Degree in Electrical Engineering, Physics, Materials Science, Optoelectronics or similar (or equivalent experience).
• Strong experience running complex hardware programmes in semiconductors, photonics, optoelectronics or advanced packaging.
• Hands-on background in at least two of:
• FA & reliability
• Optical / opto-electronic packaging
• Proven people leadership: managing and developing engineers and/or leading technical teams end-to-end.
• Comfortable working with distributed teams and external suppliers, including across US/Europe time zones.
• Excellent communication and stakeholder management skills.
• Ability to work in a fast-paced startup environment and rapidly respond to changes as needed.
• Experience with microLEDs, optical interconnects or high-speed I/O.
• Familiarity with reliability and qualification standards for optoelectronic components.
• Experience taking products from R&D into pilot or high-volume manufacturing.
• Competence in data analysis tools (Python, MATLAB, JMP, etc.).