Embedded Software Engineer, Lasers

About the role 

Lightmatter builds chips that enable extreme-scale artificial intelligence computing clusters. Join a multidisciplinary team to pioneer the future of computing by building the world's most advanced communications lasers. In this role you will help build the control plane and diagnostics software behind next-generation photonic interconnect products - implementing laser control and stabilization routines, the telemetry and monitoring firmware that keeps them healthy in the field, and the tooling that brings new hardware to life. You will work shoulder-to-shoulder with photonic, analog, digital, and systems engineers, own well-defined pieces of the stack end to end, and grow your depth in a domain where very few engineers have experience. Your work will be visible in every product we ship.

Responsibilities

• Implement and tune active laser control and stabilization algorithms on embedded targets, working from architecture and control approaches defined with the cross-functional design team.
• Own delivery of well-scoped firmware components for photonic transceiver diagnostics, telemetry, and monitoring; from requirements through bring-up, test, and release.
• Contribute to control plane and diagnostics architecture discussions across a multidisciplinary team of photonic, analog, digital, systems, and network engineers.
• Integrate transceiver management and telemetry with data center administration interfaces such as CMIS, OpenBMC, and DMTF standards.
• Bring up new hardware alongside hardware engineers, and debug embedded systems using GDB, JTAG, logic analyzers, and oscilloscopes.
• Characterize and debug laser behavior using optical test and measurement equipment, and build the automated test and data collection scripts that make that work repeatable.
• Adapt existing practices where they fit and devise new approaches where precedent is limited, working independently with review at critical checkpoints.
• Write clear documentation and share findings with engineers outside your specialty, adapting how you communicate to the audience.

Qualifications

• BS and 5+ years of experience, MS and 3+ years of experience, or a PhD; equivalent practical experience also considered.
• Degree in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, Robotics, or a related technical field.
• Experience contributing embedded software to a product that shipped to customers, or to hardware that reached production or field deployment.
• Proficiency in C or C++, and comfort with Python for tooling, test, and analysis.
• Solid understanding of hardware-software integration, including common embedded peripherals and buses (I2C, SPI, UART, GPIO).
• Experience developing firmware in resource constrained environments; experience in both bare-metal and RTOS systems preferred. FreeRTOS, Zephyr or other modern RTOS experience preferred.
• Hands-on lab experience debugging embedded systems with GDB, JTAG, logic analyzers, or oscilloscopes.
• Working knowledge of Git, and experience with CMake or a comparable build system.
• Demonstrated ability to take ownership of a defined problem, work through ambiguity, and deliver on commitments in a fast-moving environment.

Preferred Qualifications

• Coursework, research, or industry experience in closed-loop control: designing, simulating, or deploying control algorithms on real systems.
• Experience developing firmware for optical transceivers, photonic systems, or other precision analog/mixed-signal hardware.
• Familiarity with CMIS, OpenBMC, DMTF/Redfish, or similar platform management environments.
• Exposure to optical communication systems, laser physics, or thermal and wavelength stabilization techniques.
• Familiarity with optical test and measurement, and with methodologies for characterizing optical components and systems.
• Experience building test automation, hardware-in-the-loop test benches, or CI for firmware.
• A track record of learning unfamiliar technical domains quickly and becoming the person teammates come to with questions.