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.
Lightmatter 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!
If 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.
Lightmatter is (re)inventing the future of computing with light!
We are hiring a Staff Photonics Design and Layout Engineer to join our rapidly growing team. In this role, you will be working closely with photonics, product, architecture, analog, digital and packaging teams to floorplan, design and layout block- and chip-scale photonic circuits. You will be tasked with supporting photonic products throughout their entire development cycle, from a clean sheet concept all the way to the tapeout and bring-up. Leveraging our industry-leading and proprietary photonics integration and verification flow and tools, you will be working on verifying that all blocks and circuits meet their performance design targets.
Join a tight-knit team where each individual’s contributions directly influence the success of the company and product. You'll have the opportunity to build innovative integrated photonic solutions from the ground up and tackle groundbreaking challenges. Work with people who love to build and who thrive in diverse technical environments where great ideas are prioritized.
Responsibilities- Understand product requirements and work with customer-facing teams to help identify optimal photonics solutions
- Work on clean sheet design and layout of block- and system-level photonic circuits
- Work with analog, digital and packaging teams to ensure seamless integration of on-chip photonics with other subsystems
- Perform rigorous layout-driven photonic simulation and verification. Identify performance bottlenecks and troubleshoot issues.
- Help develop and improve photonic layout, verification and integration flows for multiple photonic processes and foundries
- Contribute to proprietary PDK development
- Engage in problem solving and contribute to new photonic chip designs and architectures.
- Publish novel results, and participate in premier optics/photonics conferences.
- MS + 10 years or PhD + 3 years of industry experience in Electrical Engineering, Physics, Photonics, or related discipline
- Excellent understanding of fundamental concepts of silicon photonics
- Familiarity with of a wide variety of silicon photonics devices, knowledge of their performance metrics and design trade-offs
- Proficiency with Python
- Experience with script-based photonic circuit design and layout using GDSFactory or similar
- Demonstrated track record of multiple photonic tapeouts
- Excellent communication skills, with demonstrated ability to collaborate effectively with multidisciplinary teams
- Demonstrated ability to independently work on both highly constrained and loosely defined problems
- Experience with product-grade photonic tapeouts
- Experience with foundry and custom PDKs
- Experience with photonic and/or analog circuit design in Cadence Virtuoso
- Strong project execution skills, with the ability to handle multiple priorities and meet project milestones.
We offer competitive compensation. The base salary range for this role determined based on location, experience, educational background, and market data.
- Comprehensive Health Care Plan (Medical, Dental & Vision)
- Retirement Savings Matching Program
- Life Insurance (Basic, Voluntary & AD&D)
- Generous Time Off (Vacation, Sick & Public Holidays)
- Paid Family Leave
- Short Term & Long Term Disability
- Training & Development
- Commuter Benefits
- Flexible, hybrid workplace model
- Equity grants (applicable to full-time employees)
Benefits 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.
Export Control
Candidates should have capacity to comply with the federally mandated requirements of U.S. export control laws.
Skills Required
- MS + 10 years or PhD + 3 years industry experience in Electrical Engineering, Physics, Photonics, or related discipline
- Excellent understanding of fundamental concepts of silicon photonics
- Familiarity with a wide variety of silicon photonics devices and their performance metrics and design trade-offs
- Proficiency with Python
- Experience with script-based photonic circuit design and layout using GDSFactory or similar
- Demonstrated track record of multiple photonic tapeouts
- Excellent communication skills and ability to collaborate with multidisciplinary teams
- Ability to independently work on both highly constrained and loosely defined problems
- Experience with product-grade photonic tapeouts
- Experience with foundry and custom PDKs
- Experience with photonic and/or analog circuit design in Cadence Virtuoso
- Strong project execution skills, ability to handle multiple priorities and meet milestones
Lightmatter Compensation & Benefits Highlights
The following summarizes recurring compensation and benefits themes identified from responses generated by popular LLMs to common candidate questions about Lightmatter and has not been reviewed or approved by Lightmatter.
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Fair & Transparent Compensation — Pay is considered competitive for specialized photonics and AI‑hardware roles, with posted ranges and third‑party totals aligning to strong market levels. Compensation for niche roles is framed as consistent with top‑tier hardware/photonics expectations.
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Healthcare Strength — Healthcare is described as comprehensive, covering medical, dental, and vision in current postings. Additional protections like life insurance and disability are also called out.
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Equity Value & Accessibility — Equity grants for full‑time employees are commonly included alongside base pay. Some postings also mention performance‑based equity components.
Lightmatter Insights
What We Do
Lightmatter is a startup photonics company that has pioneered a new paradigm in processor chip architecture that uses photons instead of electrons. Now the leader in the photonic AI compute “space race,” this new class of high performance semiconductors is the foundation of Lightmatter’s mission to enable the growth of computing, reduce harmful emissions associated with this growth, and democratize computing for all. Lightmatter's technology accelerates critical operations in deep neural networks, using an array of programmable photonic elements fabricated alongside transistors in conventional computer chip fabrication processes. Our close-knit team of engineers has created an integrated photonics chip and ultra-high performance interconnect that is faster, more efficient, and cooler than anything else on earth (or anything ever experienced before) to power the next giant leaps in human progress.
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