Hardware Systems Technical Lead, Lightmatter

$217-256k

+ New hire equity grant, annual performance-based equity, and other rewards that recognize your impact and contribution.

Senior and Expert level

San Francisco Bay Area

More information about location

Office located in Mountain View, CA

Light-powered AI computing

Be an early applicant

Light-powered AI computing

201-500 employees

B2BArtificial IntelligenceManufacturingDeep TechMachine LearningScience

Be an early applicant

$217-256k

+ New hire equity grant, annual performance-based equity, and other rewards that recognize your impact and contribution.

Senior and Expert level

San Francisco Bay Area

More information about location

Office located in Mountain View, CA

201-500 employees

B2BArtificial IntelligenceManufacturingDeep TechMachine LearningScience

Company mission

To build an engine that will power discoveries, drive progress, and redefine what computers and human beings are capable of.

Job

Company

Role

Who you are

Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering or related discipline with 12+ years of relevant industry experience
Demonstrated track record of taking multiple complex hardware systems from concept through production
Deep knowledge of VRMs, high-speed SerDes, and interfaces/protocols including PCIe, Ethernet, SPI/QSPI, I3C, I2C, and JTAG
Experience leading multi-disciplinary development, integration, and troubleshooting across electrical, mechanical, and firmware domains
Strong ownership mindset with the ability to work in ambiguous and dynamic environments

Desirable

Experience designing hardware systems for AI/HPC data center infrastructure, optical transceivers, or silicon photonics products
Experience with Systems Engineering methodology, including requirements definition and traceability, FMEA, and EVT/DVT/PVT planning and execution
Familiarity with advanced packaging technologies and high-density PCB design

What the job involves

We are looking for a talented engineer to provide technical leadership to the Hardware Systems organization to help us build the next generation of silicon photonics based artificial intelligence accelerators and interconnect products
As a Hardware Systems Technical Lead, you will be responsible for delivering board and system solutions using Lightmatter’s innovative technology to create state of the art machine learning/artificial intelligence or massive scale-out interconnect platforms
You will work closely with our hardware and software teams, including mechanical, packaging, and IC engineering, to design and build leading edge system level products
Collaborate with system architects and technical leads to define and develop hardware systems for photonic AI infrastructure applications
Own hardware systems development throughout the full lifecycle, from concept through production
Define, develop, and review PCBAs to meet system-level electrical, power, and interface requirements
Lead hands-on integration, verification, and validation across bench bring-up, EVT/DVT, and production release
Drive cross-functional collaboration with firmware, photonics, packaging, and software teams to resolve dependencies and manage tradeoffs
Maintain thorough hardware documentation for schematics, design reviews, test plans, validation reports, and other engineering documentation
Research components and technologies to meet current and next-generation product goals and contribute to the technology roadmap, and improve development processes and engineering best practices
Mentor and provide technical guidance to engineers on the team

Our take

Neural networks and CPUs are vital to AI solutions, but manufacturers have largely failed to maintain innovation in recent years. Lightmatter solves this problem by offering a next-generation computing platform powered by photonics (light waves).

Lightmatter offers a forward-facing platform for AI-building that acts as an alternative to traditional solutions. It works by replacing wired CPUs with a combination of photonics and new algorithms. Lightmatter's solution is not only faster, but it is considerably more sustainable, and it has the potential to drive the next generation of AI development.

As of early 2026, Lightmatter had raised $850 million across six funding rounds and grown to a staggering valuation of $4.4 billion. This showcases the growing demand for faster, more effective AI-building solutions. With products already on the market and a roadmap to tackle even more components in the years ahead, the future for Lightmatter certainly looks bright.

Steph

Company Specialist at Welcome to the Jungle

Insights

Top investors

Glassdoor (4)

Company

Funding (last 2 of 6 rounds)

Oct 2024

$400m

SERIES D

Dec 2023

$155m

SERIES C

Total funding: $822m

Company benefits

Commuter benefit
Happy hour -Spend time together and build friendships
Generous vacation policy and holidays
401(K)
Opportunity to learn from your peers and teach them what you know across electronics, photonics, machine learning, and more

Company HQ

Old Mountain View, Mountain View, CA

Leadership

Nicholas Harris

(CEO & Co-Founder)

Previously worked as an R&D Product Engineer at Micron Technology, and as a Postdoctoral Fellow at MIT.

Thomas Graham

(Head of ML & Co-Founder)

Was an M&A Analyst at Morgan Stanley, and worked as an Agency Business Development Manager at Google.

Darius Bunandar

(Chief Scientist & Co-Founder)

Worked as a Research Collaborator at Caltech, and was a PhD Candidate at MIT.

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