{"id":2886675,"url":"https://alion.io/job/voyant-photonics-systems-software-engineer-hardware-validation","title":"Systems Software Engineer, Hardware Validation","company":{"id":690035,"name":"Voyant Photonics","domain":"voyantphotonics.com","url":"https://alion.io/company/voyantphotonics","size_band":null,"is_staffing_agency":false,"employer_type":"direct","is_intermediary":false,"listed_via":null,"ats_vendor":"Ashby","truth_index":null},"role":"Backend","role_family":"Backend","seniority":"junior","employment_type":"full_time","work_mode":"on_site","remote_scope":null,"remote_scope_basis":null,"remote_working_hours":null,"hiring_geo_confidence":"structured","locations":["New York, United States"],"countries":["US"],"hiring_countries":[],"hiring_countries_total":0,"salary":{"min":110000,"max":170000,"currency":"USD","period":"year","gross":null,"usd_annual":170000},"salary_estimate":null,"experience_years_min":2,"visa_sponsorship":false,"relocation_package":false,"has_equity":false,"technologies":[{"name":"CI/CD","optional":false},{"name":"Linux","optional":false},{"name":"Python","optional":false},{"name":"ROS","optional":false},{"name":"Rust","optional":false},{"name":"Sensor Fusion","optional":false},{"name":"C","optional":true},{"name":"C++","optional":true},{"name":"Embedded C","optional":true},{"name":"SystemVerilog","optional":true}],"status":"live","first_seen_at":"2026-10-20T00:06:42Z","employer_posted_date":"2026-10-20","last_verified_at":"2026-10-20T21:40:32Z","board_verified":true,"closed_at":null,"days_open":0,"trust":{"level":"ok","repost_count":null,"flags":[],"days_open":0},"description":"Systems Software Engineer, Hardware Validation\nAbout us:\nVoyant Photonics builds silicon photonic chips that steer and switch light at high speed. They power next generation, chip-scale FMCW LiDAR for robotics and autonomy, and optical circuit switches (OCS) for AI data centers. Based in NYC, we’re a hands-on team designing, building, and deploying frontier hardware to solve problems that matter, from how machines see to how AI scales.\nAbout the role\nOur tech stack spans FPGA and ASIC logic, microcontroller firmware, Linux drivers and cross platform user-facing APIs, and every layer changes every week. We're hiring engineers, at more than one level, to keep them integrated, tested and releasable.\nWhat Actually Matters\nCode is cheaper to write than ever. Knowing what should be written, and what \"done\" means, is the job. We want someone with strong, well-reasoned opinions about how software should be organized and how test coverage should grow, who argues for them, and who changes their mind when the evidence says so.\nThings we believe in as a team:\nFix it at the source. A bug gets fixed where it lives, even when that's someone else's code. The friction of working in each other's areas is worth it.\n\nLive at the tip. Every repo tracks the latest of everything it depends on. Small, frequent bumps surface breaks while they're still cheap to fix.\n\nDuplicated code is broken code. Two copies drift apart, and then one of them is wrong.\n\nIt doesn't work until someone else has run it on hardware. Your own simulation or bench is where you start, not where you're done.\n\nDisagree with one? Tell us why when you apply.\nWhat You'll Do\nOwn releases from commit to customer: build, verify, version and ship product bundles (FPGA bitstreams, firmware, drivers, APIs), including field updates, with release notes and runbooks people trust.\n\nGrow our HIL CI to cover every subsystem, and bring each new product into it from its first bring-up board.\n\nTrack every bug CI finds to its root cause, whether that's Python, Rust, firmware, a Linux driver or FPGA logic, then fix it.\n\nTake our products into the systems that use them: time sync, calibration, sensor fusion, and open-source ecosystems like OCP and ROS.\n\nWhat We're Looking For\n2+ years of software engineering experience, or equivalent depth from research, internships or serious personal projects. We'll scale scope to experience.\n\nStrong Python, and comfort debugging languages you don't write every day.\n\nHands-on hardware experience: bring-up, reading schematics, and using lab instruments to tell a software bug from a board bug.\n\nCI/CD experience, ideally against real hardware.\n\nProactive communicator who cares about documentation to support cross functional team members & customers.\n\nNice to Have\nRust, C++ or embedded C (we use STM32)\n\nLinux device drivers, especially SPI and custom low-level interfaces\n\nReading System Verilog well enough to debug across the FPGA boundary\n\nHIL rigs and lab automation (SCPI/VISA, self-hosted CI runners)\n\nTiming and signal-integrity debug across SPI, I2C, UART, Ethernet and JTAG/SWD, plus board rework\n\nFiber optics and optical test equipment\n\nDatacenter networking, PTP, point clouds or ROS 2\n\nSupporting software that external customers depend on\n\nWhat You'll Gain\nOwnership of the release and test architecture for our products, from first bring-up to shipping: real decisions, not someone else's pipeline.\n\nClose collaboration with hardware, optics, signal processing and perception engineers, and real influence over technical direction at an early-stage company.\n\nA path toward customer-facing integration work, if that interests you.\n\nLife at Voyant\nWe build frontier hardware & software from our lab and office in Midtown Manhattan, where optical tables, lab benches and electronics sit alongside traditional office space. Our work is hands-on and primarily in person, but we don’t run on a rigid 9-to-5. We partner with customers across time zones, so some calls start early or run late, and we adjust schedules around them. We run a high-trust, high-accountability environment: you’ll own meaningful work, move quickly and often wear more than one hat. Voyant provides catered lunch every day at HQ, and we’re a diverse group of food lovers from around the world who enjoy sharing food, culture and technical ideas around the lunch table.\nEqual Opportunity Employer\nVoyant Photonics is an equal opportunity employer committed to building a diverse and inclusive workplace. We welcome applicants from all backgrounds and do not discriminate based on race, color, religion, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, pregnancy, marital or partnership status, age, national origin, citizenship, veteran or military status, disability, medical condition, genetic information, caregiver status, or any other characteristic protected by law.","description_format":"text","description_chars":4874,"description_truncated":false,"requirements":{"experience_years_min":2,"management_years_min":null,"team_size_min":null,"manages_managers":false,"education":null,"security_clearance":false,"languages":[]},"benefits":[],"hiring_locations":[],"hiring_excludes":[],"relocation_offered":false,"industries":["Autonomous Driving","Optics & Photonic Components"],"lifecycle":[{"event":"open","at":"2026-10-20T00:33:15Z"}],"visa":[{"country":"US","licensed_sponsor":true,"evidence":"H-1B filings in 12 months: 1","filings_12m":1,"filings_prev_12m":3,"green_card_filings_12m":0,"median_offered_wage_usd":117500,"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)"],"filings_for_role_12m":0}],"liveness":{"score":86,"band":"hot","label":"Hiring now","p_open":1,"p_active":0.86,"p_room":1,"age_days":0,"expected_fill_days":20,"reasons":["conf:1","win:early","comp:junior"],"computed_at":"2026-10-20T05:45:00Z"},"pay":{"stated_usd_annual":170000,"is_top_pay":true},"html_url":"https://alion.io/job/voyant-photonics-systems-software-engineer-hardware-validation","json_url":"https://alion.io/job/voyant-photonics-systems-software-engineer-hardware-validation.json","meta":{"generated_at":"2026-10-20T21:41:23Z","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":25259,"day_limit":null,"remaining_today":null,"minute_limit":300,"resets_at":"2026-10-21T00:00:00Z"}},"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":690035},"rest":"https://alion.io/mcp/rest/get_company?id=690035"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.slices&for=job%2Fvoyant-photonics-systems-software-engineer-hardware-validation"},{"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%2Fvoyant-photonics-systems-software-engineer-hardware-validation"},{"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%2Fvoyant-photonics-systems-software-engineer-hardware-validation"},{"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/voyant-photonics-systems-software-engineer-hardware-validation\", \"note\": \"what you need it for\"}"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.verify&for=job%2Fvoyant-photonics-systems-software-engineer-hardware-validation"}]}