Infrastructure Engineer

Wave Photonics; Cambridge; On-site; GBP 90,000 - 115,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Company share options

Enhanced annual leave 25 days + bank-h

Cycle to work scheme

Job summary

Wave Photonics in Cambridge, UK is seeking a skilled Infrastructure Engineer to build and operate a cloud-backed HPC environment for heavy design and simulation workloads. The role spans on‑prem and cloud, unified under Kubernetes, with emphasis on security and a reliable, self‑service platform.

You will own the compute platform, observability, data infrastructure, and security, enabling scalable, automated workflows while maintaining strong safeguards and ease of use for the team.

Qualifications

• Experience running Kubernetes in production, ideally including bare metal.
• Cloud-native mindset: you think in Kubernetes and treat on-prem machines as just another part of the cluster.
• Some Linux sysadmin experience, to manage our bare metal boxes.
• Comfortable with compute-heavy, batch-style workloads.
• Experience with Infrastructure as Code (Terraform).
• Willingness to take ownership and make pragmatic calls.
• Ability to architect robust/reliable systems and care about the experience of the people relying on your infrastructure.

Responsibilities

• The compute platform – Kubernetes across on-prem and cloud, run as one coherent system, including cloud bursting.
• Observability – Monitoring and alerting to pre-empt issues.
• Data infrastructure – Reliable, well-organised storage and access for large scientific datasets, with backups you can trust.
• Security – Ensuring security (RBAC, secrets, policies, zero trust networking) across the stack.

Skills

Kubernetes in production

Linux system administration

Compute-heavy workloads

Cloud-native mindset

Ownership & pragmatic decision-making

Architecture robust/reliable systems

Batch workloads

Tools

Terraform

Job description

Infrastructure Engineer

Cambridge, UK

Start date: September 2026 or ASAP

Contract: Permanent, full-time role

About us

At Wave Photonics, we are building a platform to enable and accelerate the development, mass production and adoption of integrated photonics technologies. Integrated photonics will be crucial in enabling a host of applications ranging from energy-efficient communications, wearable healthcare sensors, rapid diagnostic tools, optical tensor processors, on‑chip LiDAR, quantum computing and communication, and many more. We believe that many obstacles in developing these technologies can be removed using a combination of simulation, statistical modelling and optimisation techniques.

Founded in 2021, we have backing from investors in Silicon Valley, the UK, and the EU, and are contributing to multiple projects funded by Innovate UK. We were also successful in winning a prestigious European Innovation Council Accelerator grant to develop solutions for frontier applications of integrated photonics.

Today we are a team of around 20 people in Cambridge, automating PDK design for integrated photonics and building the hub that connects chip designers, IP providers and foundries. Behind the product sits a serious compute and data pipeline, and it now needs someone to own it.

We are seeking a highly motivated and enthusiastic Infrastructure Engineer to join our team and contribute to our mission in accelerating the growth and adoption of integrated photonics technologies. If you're drawn to deep tech, enjoy working where your contributions are visible, and want to be part of a team that takes both its science and its culture seriously, we'd love to hear from you.

Role overview

Your mission is to build reliable, cloud-backed HPC infrastructure that our team can run heavy design and simulation workloads on without friction, and to take care of security across how we run IT both on‑prem and in the cloud. Our compute lives across our own hardware and the cloud, unified under Kubernetes with the ability to burst upward when we need it. Your job is to make that platform solid, self‑service and trustworthy, and to keep it secure end to end.

What you will own

• The compute platform – Kubernetes across on‑prem and cloud, run as one coherent system, including cloud bursting. Making it easy for the team to submit, monitor and debug compute‑heavy jobs without needing to understand the machinery underneath.
• Observability – Monitoring and alerting that tells you something is wrong before a user does.
• Data infrastructure – Reliable, well‑organised storage and access for large scientific datasets, with backups you can trust.
• Security – Making sure our environment is secure (RBAC, secrets, policies, zero trust networking)

Our core stack

Kubernetes, cloud (DigitalOcean/GCP) alongside bare metal, Terraform. Both CPU and GPU workloads.

We want to build things once, so they don't demand constant attention: it requires a lot of automation, monitoring relevant metrics, and designing robust systems. If your instinct on seeing a recurring manual task is to engineer it out of existence, you will fit in well here. It is a broad role with a lot of autonomy, so you will set the standards and we will trust you to run with them. As the company grows, so will the scale of what you are running.

Desired skills and experience

Essential

• Experience running Kubernetes in production, ideally including bare metal.
• Cloud‑native mindset: you think in Kubernetes and treat on‑prem machines as just another part of the cluster.
• Some Linux sysadmin experience, to manage our bare metal boxes.
• Comfortable with compute‑heavy, batch‑style workloads.
• Experience with Infrastructure as Code (Terraform)
• Willingness to take ownership and make pragmatic calls.
• Being able to architecture robust/reliable systems, Care about the experience of the people relying on your infrastructure.

Nice to have / Beneficial

• HPC‑style job scheduling (Kueue, Slurm, MPI, or similar).
• Experience with large scientific or array datasets.
• Any background in photonics, semiconductors, EDA, or scientific computing.

We are particularly interested in people who can solve complex problems, learn quickly and make a meaningful contribution. If you do not meet every requirement but believe you could be successful in the role, we would still encourage you to apply.

If you are as excited as we are about the world‑changing technologies that will be enabled by integrated photonics and you want to play a key part in it, then please get in touch!

Work environment

At Wave Photonics, we see a brighter future. We strive towards that goal not only in the technology we develop, but as a dedicated and welcoming team who are passionate about working together to make it happen. We see the huge value in creating a team with people from all backgrounds and experiences. Equity, diversity, and inclusion are vital to our mission, and we strongly encourage people of all backgrounds and identities to apply.

Our office in Cambridge serves as the dynamic hub where brilliant minds converge to redefine the future of integrated photonics. Nestled in one of the world's most renowned academic and technological cities, our workspace embodies the spirit of collaboration, creativity, and cutting‑edge exploration. We strive to create an environment where open communication and cross‑disciplinary thinking are not just encouraged but celebrated.

Salary and compensation

Excellent salary depending on experience.

Company share options plan.

Enhanced annual leave (25 days + bank holidays).

In‑person working with flexible working options available where possible.

Cycle to work scheme.

All applicants will be notified within 28 days of application.