Staff/Sr Staff Electrical Design Engineer

Lightmatter; Mountain View (CA); Hybrid; USD 186,000 - 250,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Retirement Savings Matching Program

Life Insurance

Generous Time Off

Paid Family Leave

Short Term Disability

Long Term Disability

Training & Development

Flexible, hybrid workplace model

Equity grants

Job summary

Lightmatter seeks a Staff Electrical Design Engineer in Mountain View, CA to drive HW system solutions for silicon photonics AI accelerators and interconnects.

You will lead system-level design, collaborate with mechanical, packaging and IC teams, and validate and release advanced board-level products at the edge of innovation.

The role supports Staff and Sr Staff levels with a strong hybrid-work model and competitive equity compensation.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering or equivalent.
• Experience leading cross-functional hardware integration.

Responsibilities

• Define system-level hardware requirements with system architect and leads.
• Electrical design of power, memory, and interconnect circuits (analog and digital).
• Select electrical/optical components per IC/photonics input.
• Develop conceptual designs, models, and simulations for chip-modules and systems.
• Oversee PCB layout with detailed electrical constraints.
• Ensure manufacturability with high yield and robustness.
• Qualify chip and system electrical properties.
• Laboratory validation of boards and systems.
• Lead integration with mechanical, software, IC teams.
• Support contract manufacturing during prototypes and production.

Skills

Schematic design tools (Cadence/Altium

Mentor

Altium

High-speed interfaces (PCIe/Ethernet)

System-level HW design

Lab troubleshooting

Education

Bachelors in Electrical Engineering

Tools

Cadence

Mentor

Altium Designer

Job description

Staff/Sr Staff Electrical Design Engineer

Mountain View, CA

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!

Staff Electrical Design Engineer

We are looking for a Staff Electrical Design Engineer to contribute to the development of the next generation of silicon photonics based artificial intelligence accelerators and interconnect products.

In this role, you will lead board and system solutions that leverage Lightmatter’s technology to enable advanced machine learning, artificial intelligence, and large-scale interconnect platforms.

You will lead and own HW systems efforts, collaborate closely with teams across hardware and software, including mechanical, packaging, and IC engineering, to design, integrate, troubleshoot and release system-level products at the leading edge of innovation.

Responsibilities

• Collaborate with the system architect and technical leads to define system-level hardware requirements and spec
• Electrical design of power, memory, and interconnect circuits, working in both the analog and digital domains
• Identify electrical and optical components to fit the application based on specifications provided by the IC and photonics engineering teams
• Starting from fundamental concepts and system considerations you will develop conceptual designs, physical modeling, and simulations of chip-modules and systems
• Oversee and review PCB layout designs, providing complete and detailed electrical constraint rules
• Ensure the board and system is manufacturable to the latest technologies with high yield and robustness
• Qualification of chip and system electrical properties
• Perform laboratory validation of boards and systems
• Lead integration with mechanical, software, IC, and other related teams
• Support contract manufacturing during prototype and production phase to resolve any issues
• Work with component vendors and other supply partners
• Research new components, processes, and technologies to meet product goals

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s Degree in Electrical Engineering
• 8+ years of related experience in system-level electrical design, having successfully taken several products from concept to production.
• Proficient in schematic design using Cadence, Mentor, or Altium tool set (Altium preferred)
• In depth knowledge on VRMs, high speed SERDES, CPUs and various interfaces/protocols such as PCIe, Ethernet, QSPI, I3C, I2C, etc
• 5+ years of experience in lab experimentation, non-intrusive circuit debugging, and leading cross-functional integration teams
• Experience in working with thermal solutions for integrated circuits and their board level systems
• Familiar with Product Lifecycle Management tools, e.g. Oracle Agile, Arena, or Omnify PLM with an understanding of BOM and ECO management

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience designing electrical systems for networking or similar industries
• Knowledge of integrated circuit layout, and designing a carrier PCBA for it
• Knowledge of common manufacturing and design processes
• Familiarity with Systems Engineering principles
• Familiar with 3D Mechanical CAD tools, e.g. Solidworks or AutoCAD

This role is open to two levels Staff and Sr Staff. Leveling placement and salary range is dependent on education, years of experience, and interview performance.

We offer competitive compensation. The base salary range for this role determined based on location, experience, educational background, and market data.

Salary Range: total compensation goes beyond base salary, it also includes a new hire equity grant, annual performance-based equity, and other rewards that recognize your impact and contribution.

$186,000 - $250,000 USD

• 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
• 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.