Staff Hardware Test Automation Engineer

Lightmatter; Mountain View (CA); Hybrid; USD 167,000 - 227,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health plan

401(k) matching

Life insurance

PTO

Family leave

Disability insurance

Training & development

Commuter benefits

Hybrid work model

Equity grants

Job summary

Lightmatter is creating the next generation of photonic chips and AI data center infrastructure. We seek a Hardware Test Automation Engineer to automate bring-up, characterization, and production testing using an internal Java/Python framework across bench and ATE environments.

You will collaborate with hardware and characterization engineers, develop instrument control code, and build robust data pipelines for test results and yields. Hybrid work model and career growth included.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering or related field.
• 8+ years of experience in hardware test software, ATE systems, or test architecture, ideally in semiconductor or photonics.
• Track record of owning test software architecture for a product line.
• Deep hands-on experience with ATE test method/test flow development and/or embedded test frameworks; fluency with instrumentation automation (SCPI/VISA).
• History of mentoring engineers and driving cross-functional technical decisions with hardware, characterization, and manufacturing teams.
• Ability to scope, plan, implement, and validate an automation project end-to-end.
• Comfortable working with embedded software (C/C++) and firmware.

Responsibilities

• Learn the hardware you're automating well enough to make informed software decisions.
• Design and build test software that automates device bring-up, characterization, and production test sequences.
• Develop and maintain test methods, test flows, and instrument control code.
• Work with hardware and characterization engineers to translate device physics and test requirements into working test software.
• Build and maintain data logging and results pipelines for accurate data capture and downstream analysis.
• Debug integration issues across device under test, fixture, instrument, and test code to identify root cause.
• Support test program releases to internal and external test facilities.

Skills

Hardware test software

Test automation

C/C++

SCPI/VISA

Embedded firmware

Education

Bachelor's degree in CS/EE

Tools

ATE systems

Instrument control

Lab automation

Job description

Lightmatter is creating the next generation of photonic chips and AI data center infrastructure. We seek a Hardware Test Automation Engineer to automate bring-up, characterization, and production testing using an internal Java/Python framework across bench and ATE environments.

You will collaborate with hardware and characterization engineers, develop instrument control code, and build robust data pipelines for test results and yields. Hybrid work model and career growth included.