Staff/Senior Staff Hardware Test Automation Engineer

Lightmatter; Boston (MA); On-site; USD 140,000 - 170,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Commuter benefit

401(K)

Happy hour

Generous vacation policy and holidays

Learning from peers across electronics

Job summary

Lightmatter is seeking a Hardware Test Automation Engineer to drive automation across wafer test, lab and production environments. You will bridge bench engineering and software teams by implementing scalable test software and data pipelines, while learning hardware to make informed software decisions.

You will own test method development, instrument control, and integration with wafer-level hardware, contributing to robust test flows and tooling in a fast-paced semiconductor/photonics setting.

Qualifications

• 8+ years of experience in hardware test software, ATE systems, or test architecture, ideally in semiconductor or photonics.
• History of mentoring engineers and driving cross-functional technical decisions with hardware, characterization, and manufacturing teams.
• Comfortable reading and reasoning about embedded software (C/C++), controls, or firmware to co-develop with engineers.
• Deep hands-on experience with ATE test method/test flow development and/or embedded test frameworks for hardware test automation, plus fluency with instrumentation automation (SCPI/VISA) at a level to teach others.

Responsibilities

• Design and build test software that automates device bring-up, characterization, and production test sequences across bench and ATE environments.
• Develop and maintain test methods, test flows, and instrument control code depending on level and project; writing and reviewing code daily.
• Work directly with hardware and characterization engineers to translate device physics and test requirements into working, repeatable test software.
• Build and maintain data logging and results pipelines so test data is captured accurately and usable downstream (metrics, yield analysis).
• Debug test hardware/software integration issues across device under test, fixture, instrument, and test code to find root cause.
• Support test program releases to internal test cells and, at senior levels, to external test facilities.

Skills

C/C++

ATE systems

test architecture

SCPI/VISA

wafer prober integration

instrument control

Education

Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering or related field

Master’s/PhD with 3+ years in hardware test software

Tools

ATE systems

Embedded test hardware tools

Job description

• Have 50% of the criteria? Excited about this opportunity? Passionate about what we do at CreatorIQ? CreatorIQ is a place where everyone can grow
• You’ll write the code that drives instruments, testers, wafer probers, and lab automation to bring a chip to life and prove it works
• Test software infrastructure at Lightmatter spans multiple platforms, wafer test, hardware validation, and laser/optical test, and this role often acts as the bridge between engineers working at the bench and the broader test software team
• As a Hardware Test Automation Engineer you’ll have the opportunity to work across some combination of: an internal test software framework (Java/Python-based), industry-standard ATE test method and testflow development, wafer prober integration, instrument control (optical and electrical sources, meters, sensors), embedded/firmware interfaces on the hardware side, and data pipelines from lab equipment to structured results
• Learn the hardware you’re automating well enough to make informed software decisions about it
• Design and build test software that automates device bring-up, characterization, and production test sequences across bench and ATE environments
• Develop and maintain test methods, test flows, and instrument control code depending on level and project while writing code and reviewing code are both daily parts of the role
• Work directly with hardware and characterization engineers to understand their needs and translate device physics and test requirements into working, repeatable test software
• Build and maintain data logging and results pipelines so test data is captured accurately and usable downstream (metric computation, yield analysis, production handoff)
• Debug test hardware/software integration issues, working across the device under test, the fixture, the instrument, and the test code to find root cause
• Support test program releases to internal test cells and, at senior levels, to external test facilities
• Communicate daily with the team on progress and blockers, and spend regular time in the lab working hands-on with hardware

Benefits

• Commuter benefit
• 401(K)
• Happy hour -Spend time together and build friendships
• Generous vacation policy and holidays
• Opportunity to learn from your peers and teach them what you know across electronics, photonics, machine learning, and more

Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering or related fieldHistory of mentoring engineers and driving cross-functional technical decisions with hardware, characterization, and manufacturing teams8+ years of experience in hardware test software, ATE systems, or test architecture, ideally in semiconductor or photonicsTrack record of owning test software architecture for a product line, including decisions on how the framework scales across projects and teamsComfortable working at the hardware/software boundary — reading and reasoning about embedded software (C/C++), controls, or firmware well enough to co-develop directly with the engineers who own itCan articulate, end to end, how they scoped, planned, implemented, and validated an automation projectDeep hands-on experience with ATE test method/test flow development and/or embedded test frameworks for hardware test automation, plus fluency with instrumentation automation (SCPI/VISA or equivalent) at a level where you can teach it to othersMaster’s/PhD with 3+ years, of experience in hardware test software, ATE systems, or test architecture, ideally in semiconductor or photonicsExperience integrating ATE with wafer-level hardware (probers, handlers) is a strong plusExperience with photonic test instrumentation