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 Photonics Design Engineer to join our development team. In this role, you will design, layout, and test silicon photonics devices for an integrated and scalable laser system.You will collaborate closely with cross-functional teams including photonics, packaging, systems, and software to define and refine specifications, ensuring that all designs meet or exceed performance targets and align with product requirements.
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 laser 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.
Key Responsibilities:
- Design and optimize silicon photonic devices for laser systems, including couplers, muxes, rings, switches, and other active and passive components.
- Layout device test structures as well as complex integrated photonic systems.
- Work with the characterization team to develop and execute test plans for device validation, analyzing results to assess performance and troubleshoot issues.
- Work closely with packaging and systems engineering teams to address integration challenges, ensuring high alignment between device and system requirements.
- Implement rigorous simulation, modeling, and testing methodologies to calibrate designs and optimize performance across manufacturing variability.
- Engage in problem solving and contribute to new device designs and architectures.
- Publish novel photonics results, and participate in premier optics/photonics conferences.
Required Qualifications:
- PhD in Electrical Engineering, Physics, Photonics, or related discipline with 3 years of industry experience
- Experience in silicon photonics device design, layout, and testing, ideally in a product development environment
- Demonstrated track record of designing integrated silicon photonics components using Lumerical, Tidy3D, or equivalent
- Proficiency in modeling and data analysis in Python
- Experience with integrated lasers, SOAs
- Excellent communication skills, with a demonstrated ability to collaborate effectively with multidisciplinary teams
- Demonstrate strong problem solving skills in problems that do not have obvious solutions
- Can-do, positive attitude
Preferred Qualifications:
- Experience doing layout with foundry PDKs
- Experience with code-based GDS creation such as GDS Factory or similar
- Experience with optical and electronic test equipment, wafer-level testing and statistical data analysis (e.g., optical spectrum analyzers, tunable lasers, OBR/OVA, oscilloscopes, BERT).
- 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
- PhD in Electrical Engineering, Physics, Photonics, or related discipline with 3 years of industry experience
- Experience in silicon photonics device design, layout, and testing in a product development environment
- Demonstrated track record of designing integrated silicon photonics components using Lumerical, Tidy3D, or equivalent
- Proficiency in modeling and data analysis in Python
- Experience with integrated lasers and semiconductor optical amplifiers (SOAs)
- Excellent communication and cross-functional collaboration skills
- Strong problem-solving skills for ill-defined technical problems
- Capacity to comply with U.S. export control laws
- Experience doing layout with foundry PDKs
- Experience with code-based GDS creation such as GDS Factory or similar
- Experience with optical and electronic test equipment, wafer-level testing and statistical data analysis (optical spectrum analyzers, tunable lasers, OBR/OVA, oscilloscopes, BERT)
- Strong project execution skills and ability to 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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