Systems Lead

Ayosemi; Boston (MA); On-site; USD 180,000 - 240,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health insurance

Equity

Dental insurance

Vision insurance

Job summary

Ayosemi in Boston is seeking a Systems Lead to join our engineering team. You will sit at the intersection of photonics, electronics, hardware, and AI, turning integrated concepts into working prototypes and products.

This high-visibility role owns system-level models, schedules, risk management, and interfaces with customers and government programs, empowering you to drive technical rigor and deliver impact across disciplines. Fully on-site in Boston with real ownership and equity.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering, Photonics, Physics, or related field.
• Experience with photonic systems.
• Experience with systems engineering practices (requirements definition, verification planning, cross-team coordination).
• Strong written and verbal communication and ability to produce technical reports and stakeholder-facing presentations.
• Experience building system-level models or simulations.
• Comfortable engaging with technical work not personally designed.

Responsibilities

• Coordinate across photonics, electronics, hardware, and AI teams to align interfaces and timelines.
• Drive cross-team projects from kickoff to completion and resolve bottlenecks.
• Ensure data collection and models/simulations validate system-level performance.
• Serve as primary technical and programmatic contact for government and commercial customers.
• Support proposals for government and commercial customers.
• Translate system-level requirements into scoped technical work across teams.
• Build milestone-based execution plans with scheduling, resources, and risk management.
• Track milestones, risks, and dependencies at the system level.

Skills

Photonic systems

Systems engineering

Cross-team coordination

System-level modeling

Technical communication

Multi-discipline hardware

Education

Electrical Engineering

Photonics

Physics

Job description

Come build the future of compute with us.

Location

Employment Type

Full time

Location Type

On-site

Department

About Ayo

Ayo is a venture-backed early-stage startup that will radically redefine how humanity performs compute for AI. Our photonic processors will provide orders of magnitude improvement in speed and power efficiency in comparison to conventional digital compute platforms by taking advantage of the natural parallelism, speed and energy efficiency of light.

The Role

We are seeking a Systems Lead to join Ayo as a core member of our engineering team. You will sit at the intersection of our integrated photonics, integrated electronics, hardware, and AI teams, making sure the pieces come together into working prototypes and products. You will drive the technical rigor behind our system-level models and simulations, and serve as a key technical and programmatic point of contact for commercial and government customer interactions. This is a high-visibility role for someone who wants to own outcomes across disciplines, not just execute within one.

What You'll Do

• Coordinate across the integrated photonics, integrated electronics, hardware, and AI teams to keep system-level interfaces, timelines, and technical dependencies aligned
• Drive cross-team projects from kickoff through completion, identifying and resolving technical and organizational bottlenecks
• Make sure the engineering teams are collecting the right data and building the models and simulations needed to validate system-level performance
• Serve as a primary technical and programmatic point of contact for government and commercial customers, including preparing progress reports, technical briefings, and program review decks
• Support new business activities including writing proposals for government and commercial customers
• Translate system-level requirements into scoped technical work across teams
• Build and communicate milestone-based program execution plans, including scheduling, resource management, and risk management
• Track project milestones, technical risks, and dependencies at the system level

What We’re Looking For

• Both deep and broad technical experience spanning multiple engineering disciplines in a hardware or deep‑tech environment.
• Must have prior experience with photonic systems
• Comfortable engaging deeply with technical work you did not personally design, and asking the right questions to keep it on track
• Strong written and verbal communication skills, with experience producing technical reports and stakeholder‑facing presentations
• Experience with systems engineering practices such as requirements definition, verification planning, or cross-team technical coordination
• Experience building system-level models or simulations
• Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering, Photonics, Physics, or a related field

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience working on DARPA or other government-funded R&D programs
• Background in integrated photonics, semiconductors, or related hardware domains
• Startup or small-team experience

Why Ayo

You'll be a foundational hire connecting our technical teams to our external stakeholders, shaping how the company communicates progress and how our subsystems come together.

We are working on a genuinely hard and interesting problem: unseating the GPU as the dominant AI compute platform.

Early‑stage means real ownership, real impact, and meaningful equity.

Competitive salary. Equity commensurate with stage and seniority. Benefits package including health, dental, and vision.

Fully onsite in Boston. We are a collaborative, in-person team.