{"id":82258,"url":"https://alion.io/job/lightmatter-staffsr-staff-technical-program-manager-hardware-systems-2","title":"Staff/Sr Staff Technical Program Manager, Hardware Systems","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":"Product","role_family":"Product","seniority":"staff","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":189000,"max":210000,"currency":"USD","period":"year","gross":null,"usd_annual":210000},"salary_estimate":null,"experience_years_min":5,"visa_sponsorship":false,"relocation_package":false,"has_equity":true,"technologies":[{"name":"HPC","optional":false},{"name":"Jira","optional":false},{"name":"Microsoft Project","optional":false},{"name":"Smartsheet","optional":false}],"status":"live","first_seen_at":"2026-08-04T00:03:50Z","employer_posted_date":"2026-10-01","last_verified_at":"2026-10-18T03:02:44Z","board_verified":true,"closed_at":null,"days_open":75,"trust":{"level":"ok","repost_count":1,"flags":[],"days_open":74},"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!\nWe are hiring a Sr Technical Program Manager (TPM) to drive program execution across Lightmatter's Hardware Systems team. You will drive schedules, resource planning, priorities, and cross-functional alignment for all projects and activities within the team - spanning electrical, mechanical, and system engineering.. You will work closely with internal teams such as SI, PI, SW, supply chain, and with external partners, including contract manufacturers, PCB and sheet metal fabricators, assembly houses, and other suppliers, to keep programs on track from early design through production.\nIn this role, you will manage dependencies and trade-offs across concurrent workstreams, facilitate alignment across internal and external stakeholders, and maintain program visibility for engineering leadership. Your scope covers the full hardware development lifecycle, from design through production, including the engineering support programs, test infrastructure, and tooling that keep the broader team moving. You will also serve as the team's primary program interface to broader organizational programs, ensuring that schedule changes, material commitments, and engineering status are communicated accurately and on time to cross-functional program stakeholders.\nThis is a hands-on role that combines strong program management fundamentals with a working knowledge of hardware engineering. You will be equally at home in a design review, a supplier call, a resource planning discussion, and an executive status update. You will also need to thrive in a fast-moving environment where requirements evolve, priorities shift, and not every process is fully established, and bring the clarity and structure that turns that ambiguity into forward progress.\n\nResponsibilities\nOwn program coordination across all HW Systems activities: maintain an integrated schedule across all concurrent projects and workstreams, surface priority conflicts, and drive resolution of resource contention with engineering leads.\nDrive cross-functional alignment between HW Systems and other teams: setting agendas, facilitating meetings, capturing decisions, communicating delays and risks, and relentlessly following up on action items\nManage team-wide resource loading and capacity visibility, partnering with engineering leads to flag overallocation risks and drive trade-offs discussions across concurrent programs\nBuild and maintain integrated program schedules that reflect hardware development realities - bring-up milestones, NPI phases, EVT/DVT/PVT gates, and cross-team dependencies\nOwn program scope that lives outside formal project charters: tester boards, demos, lab fixtures, calibration equipment, and internal engineering tools that teams depend on but that would otherwise lack dedicated ownership\nCoordinate material flow within the HW Systems team: track component orders, PCB fab runs, PCBA and mechanical assemblies, and engineering samples; partner with supply chain to ensure critical materials land on schedule\nTrack and coordinate cross-functional teams' HW deliverable dependencies including quantities and timelines, and ensure downstream teams are unblocked with accurate, up-to-date visibility into HW schedule and status \nServe as the primary hardware program interface with external contract manufacturers, PCB and sheet metal fabricators, and assembly houses: managing schedules, tracking deliverables, facilitating technical alignment, and driving closure on open issues in partnership with Supply chain.\nRepresent the HW Systems team in company-wide program reviews and cross-functional planning cadences; own the team's program interface to broader organizational stakeholders, communicating schedule changes, material needs, and engineering commitments proactively and clearly\nTrack HW Systems budgets for engineering activities, prototype builds, and tooling; coordinate with finance and operations to ensure spend is planned, visible, and aligned with program milestones\nAdapt quickly to change: replan and realign when scope shifts, schedules move, or engineering realities force a pivot; maintain momentum and clarity even when the path forward is not fully defined\nEstablish and maintain lightweight program management processes: status reporting cadences, risk registers, dependency tracking, and decision logs\nQualifications\nBachelor’s degree in Engineering or a related technical field.\n5+ years of program management experience in hardware engineering, with direct exposure to electrical and mechanical development cycles.\nProven track record managing concurrent engineering programs with shared resources and overlapping timelines.\nDeep familiarity with hardware development processes and terminology across the full lifecycle-including PCBA and mechanical enclosures, PCB fabrication, system integration, bring-up, EVT/DVT/PVT, and production-enabling clear communication with engineers and vendors.\nProven experience coordinating with contract manufacturers (CMs) and ODMs to manage schedules, track deliverables, and resolve open issues.\nHands-on experience with material flow, component tracking, and BOM management.\nSkilled facilitator who drives productive meetings, captures critical context, and ensures action items are owned and closed.\nStrong written and verbal communicator, comfortable presenting program status and risk assessments to engineering leads and executives.\nExpert in project management tools such as Microsoft Project, Jira, Smartsheet, or equivalent platforms.\nStrong bias for action-consistently closes loops, follows up independently, and identifies potential slips before they impact project timelines.\nThrives in fast-paced, ambiguous environments; proactively creates structure and drives clarity without waiting for complete information.\nPreferred Qualifications\nExperience managing programs for complex hardware development\nExperience defining and improving program management processes in a startup or new business unit\nThis role is open to two different levels.\nStaff: $189,000 - $210,000\nSr Staff: $217,000 - $252,000\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$189,000—$252,000 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":8061,"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":["AI Chips & Accelerators","Optics & Photonic Components"],"lifecycle":[{"event":"open","at":"2026-08-04T00:03:50Z"},{"event":"close","at":"2026-09-09T05:39:50Z"},{"event":"reopen","at":"2026-10-01T23:32:58Z"}],"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":1}],"liveness":{"score":23,"band":"cold","label":"Long shot","p_open":1,"p_active":0.512,"p_room":0.44,"age_days":74,"expected_fill_days":50,"reasons":["conf:1","stale_co","velocity","win:tail","crowd:"],"computed_at":"2026-10-17T05:46:00Z"},"pay":{"stated_usd_annual":210000,"is_top_pay":false},"html_url":"https://alion.io/job/lightmatter-staffsr-staff-technical-program-manager-hardware-systems-2","json_url":"https://alion.io/job/lightmatter-staffsr-staff-technical-program-manager-hardware-systems-2.json","meta":{"generated_at":"2026-10-18T04:40:08Z","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":6967,"day_limit":null,"remaining_today":null,"minute_limit":300,"resets_at":"2026-10-19T00:00:00Z"}},"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-staffsr-staff-technical-program-manager-hardware-systems-2"},{"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-staffsr-staff-technical-program-manager-hardware-systems-2"},{"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-staffsr-staff-technical-program-manager-hardware-systems-2"},{"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-staffsr-staff-technical-program-manager-hardware-systems-2\", \"note\": \"what you need it for\"}"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.verify&for=job%2Flightmatter-staffsr-staff-technical-program-manager-hardware-systems-2"}]}