{"id":68932,"url":"https://alion.io/job/lightmatter-staff-hardware-validation-engineer","title":"Director, Photonics Hardware Validation","company":{"id":16141,"name":"Lightmatter","domain":"lightmatter.co","url":"https://alion.io/company/lightmatter-co","size_band":"1001-5000","is_staffing_agency":false,"employer_type":"direct","is_intermediary":false,"listed_via":null,"ats_vendor":"Greenhouse","truth_index":{"grade":"B","score":79,"open_postings":18,"ghost_share":0,"stale_share":0.833,"repost_share":0,"time_to_fill_p50_days":50,"computed_at":"2026-10-17T05:46:00Z"}},"role":"Hardware","role_family":"Hardware","seniority":"head","employment_type":null,"work_mode":"hybrid","remote_scope":null,"remote_scope_basis":null,"remote_working_hours":null,"hiring_geo_confidence":"structured","locations":["Mountain View, United States"],"countries":["US"],"hiring_countries":[],"hiring_countries_total":0,"salary":{"min":261000,"max":300000,"currency":"USD","period":"year","gross":null,"usd_annual":300000},"salary_estimate":null,"experience_years_min":5,"visa_sponsorship":false,"relocation_package":false,"has_equity":true,"technologies":[{"name":"C++","optional":false},{"name":"HPC","optional":false},{"name":"Python","optional":false}],"status":"live","first_seen_at":"2026-07-01T01:55:50Z","employer_posted_date":"2026-09-29","last_verified_at":"2026-10-17T17:33:20Z","board_verified":true,"closed_at":null,"days_open":108,"trust":{"level":"ok","repost_count":1,"flags":[],"days_open":108},"description":"Lightmatter is leading the revolution in AI data center infrastructure, enabling the next giant leaps in human progress. The company invented the world’s first 3D-stacked photonics engine, Passage™, capable of connecting thousands to millions of processors at the speed of light in extreme-scale data centers for the most advanced AI and HPC workloads.\nLightmatter raised $400 million in its Series D round, reaching a valuation of $4.4 billion. We will continue to accelerate the development of data center photonics and grow every department at Lightmatter!\nIf you're passionate about tackling complex challenges, making an impact, and being an expert in your craft, join our team of brilliant scientists, engineers, and accomplished industry leaders.\nLightmatter is (re)inventing the future of computing with light!\nIn this pivotal role within Silicon Engineering, you will own the end-to-end post-silicon validation strategy and execution across optical, electrical, and system level. You will collaborate directly with Silicon Design, Laser, Packaging, Software, and Supply Chain leadership to architect scalable lab infrastructure, drive automated testing frameworks, and ensure our products meet world-class reliability standards for hyperscale AI data centers.\nResponsibilities\nScale the product validation team by recruiting, mentoring, and developing multi-disciplinary talent across optical, electrical, software, and automation domains.\nDrive silicon and platform validation strategies, requirements, and execution plans for our optical interconnect platform.\nArchitect and define comprehensive, at-scale validation environments, test frameworks, automated test suites, and telemetry data collection workflows.\nAnalyze silicon and system architecture to identify integration risks, design gaps, and marginality issues requiring rigorous corner validation.\nOversee the execution of validation plans, leading technical triage and root-cause debug for hardware, firmware, and system-level issues.\nPartner closely with Silicon, Packaging, Hardware, and Software teams to align validation coverage with design specifications and system requirements.\nInfluence pre-silicon design and simulation milestones to ensure feature completeness, advocating for validation hooks, telemetry sensors, and diagnostic monitors on-chip and on reference platforms.\nDrive hardware and software automation initiatives to enhance testing throughput, repeatability, and data analytics capabilities across validation labs.\nQualifications \nBS, MS, or Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Photonics, Physics, or a related technical field.\n12+ years of semiconductor or hardware validation experience, with significant exposure to optical/photonics link-level products.\nStrong technical background in laser, optics, or silicon photonics architecture and characterization.\n5+ years of experience developing test content, automation infrastructure, and scripting in Python or C++.\nProven leadership track record managing cross-functional engineering teams in a fast-paced environment working on transceivers or link-level products.\nSolid understanding of industry standard requirements (IEEE, MSA, OIF) and product validation through corner testing (temperature, voltage, and process matrices), including defining validation plans and generating validation reports.\nDemonstrated ability to establish process improvements, test methodologies, and data analysis workflows.\nPreferred Qualifications\nExcellent technical leadership, communication, and cross-functional project management skills.\nProven track record of successfully leading multiple link-level products through validation and high-volume production release.\nExperience scaling engineering teams through hypergrowth, establishing career development frameworks, and fostering a high-performance environment. \n Demonstrated capability to align executive stakeholders on technical roadmaps, resource trade-offs, and risk mitigation strategies.\nWe offer competitive compensation. The base salary range for this role determined based on location, experience, educational background, and market data.\nSalary Range: total compensation goes beyond base salary, it also includes a new hire equity grant, annual performance-based equity, and other rewards that recognize your impact and contribution.\n$261,000—$300,000 USD\nBenefits\nComprehensive Health Care Plan (Medical, Dental & Vision)\nRetirement Savings Matching Program\nLife Insurance (Basic, Voluntary & AD&D)\nGenerous Time Off (Vacation, Sick & Public Holidays)\nPaid Family Leave\nShort Term & Long Term Disability\nTraining & Development\nCommuter Benefits\nFlexible, hybrid workplace model\nEquity grants (applicable to full-time employees)\nBenefits eligibility may vary depending on your employment status and location. Lightmatter recruits, employs, trains, compensates, and promotes regardless of race, religion, color, national origin, sex, disability, age, veteran status, and other protected status as required by applicable law.\nExport Control\nCandidates should have capacity to comply with the federally mandated requirements of U.S. export control laws.","description_format":"text","description_chars":5166,"description_truncated":false,"requirements":{"experience_years_min":5,"management_years_min":null,"team_size_min":null,"manages_managers":false,"education":{"level":"bachelor","optional":false},"security_clearance":false,"languages":[]},"benefits":["Equity","Life insurance","Parental leave"],"hiring_locations":[{"name":"United States","iso":"US","kind":"country"}],"hiring_excludes":[],"relocation_offered":false,"industries":["Optical Communications","AI Chips & Accelerators","Optics & Photonic Components"],"lifecycle":[{"event":"open","at":"2026-07-01T01:55:50Z"},{"event":"close","at":"2026-09-02T16:23:52Z"},{"event":"reopen","at":"2026-09-29T21:24:10Z"}],"visa":[{"country":"US","licensed_sponsor":true,"evidence":"H-1B filings in 12 months: 27 · green card filings: 1","filings_12m":27,"filings_prev_12m":14,"green_card_filings_12m":1,"median_offered_wage_usd":177679,"route":null,"cap_exempt":false,"checked_at":"2026-10-15T11:24:14+00:00","sources":["US Department of Labor: LCA disclosure data (H-1B, H-1B1, E-3)","US Department of Labor: PERM disclosure data (green cards)"],"filings_for_role_12m":7}],"liveness":{"score":13,"band":"cold","label":"Long shot","p_open":1,"p_active":0.462,"p_room":0.28,"age_days":108,"expected_fill_days":50,"reasons":["conf:1","stale_co","velocity","win:tail","crowd:"],"computed_at":"2026-10-17T05:46:00Z"},"pay":{"stated_usd_annual":300000,"is_top_pay":true},"html_url":"https://alion.io/job/lightmatter-staff-hardware-validation-engineer","json_url":"https://alion.io/job/lightmatter-staff-hardware-validation-engineer.json","meta":{"generated_at":"2026-10-17T19:33:53Z","cache_seconds":300,"methodology":"https://alion.io/methodology","terms":"https://alion.io/terms","contact":"https://alion.io/contact","api":"https://alion.io/developers","about":"Alion is a live layer of people, companies and AI agents: who they are, whether they are real and active right now, what they do and how to work with them, readable by people and by agents and paid per call.","catalog":"https://alion.io/catalog.json","usage":{"tier":"crawler_verified","counted_by":"address","units_charged":1,"used_today":2877,"day_limit":null,"remaining_today":null,"minute_limit":300,"resets_at":"2026-10-18T00:00:00Z"}},"offers":[{"id":"company.slices","title":"One company in depth, by slice","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.02,"usd":0.002,"plus_per_slice":{"credits":0.05,"usd":0.005}},"unit":"per company, plus each slice with data","note":"the employer in depth","call":{"mcp_tool":"get_company","arguments":{"id":16141},"rest":"https://alion.io/mcp/rest/get_company?id=16141"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.slices&for=job%2Flightmatter-staff-hardware-validation-engineer"},{"id":"market.stats","title":"A market slice: pay, demand and time to fill","status":"live","price":{"credits":1,"usd":0.1},"unit":"per slice","note":"pay, demand and time to fill for this role and place","call":{"mcp_tool":"market_stats"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=market.stats&for=job%2Flightmatter-staff-hardware-validation-engineer"},{"id":"job.search","title":"Open jobs by role, technology, place, pay and visa","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.02,"usd":0.002},"unit":"per posting in a list","note":"similar open postings","call":{"mcp_tool":"search_jobs"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=job.search&for=job%2Flightmatter-staff-hardware-validation-engineer"},{"id":"company.verify","title":"Is this company real and active right now","status":"pilot","price":null,"unit":"per company","request":{"url":"https://alion.io/catalog/request","method":"POST","body":"{\"offer\": \"company.verify\", \"for\": \"job/lightmatter-staff-hardware-validation-engineer\", \"note\": \"what you need it for\"}"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.verify&for=job%2Flightmatter-staff-hardware-validation-engineer"}]}