Electro-Optic Systems Architect

Job Title

Electro-Optic Systems Architect

Role Summary

Lead the digital architecture for Lightmatter’s Passage product, ensuring electrical–optical–electrical links meet performance and customer requirements. Partner with chip, architecture, test, firmware, RTL, DV, and software teams to model, specify, validate, and deliver production-ready systems.

This is a senior engineering role focused on system-level integration of AMS, photonic circuits, and high-speed digital subsystems for data-center photonics.

Experience Level

Senior - typically 12+ years of relevant industry experience (role specifies 12+ years).

Responsibilities

Primary responsibilities include system architecture, cross-team coordination, and validation from concept through production.

• Serve as digital architecture owner for the Passage product across design phases.
• Specify system-level digital designs integrating AMS and photonic circuits (stabilization, tuning, analog front-end control).
• Define line-rate DSP, FEC, CRC, and other link-level algorithms and requirements.
• Collaborate with RTL and DV teams to enable block implementation and verification.
• Work with test and validation engineers to compare hardware measurements to simulation and refine models.
• Enable firmware team for hardware bring-up, validation recipes, and production handoff.
• Author and review architectural specifications, datasheets, and reference designs for customers.
• Identify risks and mitigation strategies for proposed architectures and roadmaps.

Requirements

Must-have technical skills and behaviors required for success in the role.

• Must-have: Deep experience with power-efficient digital design flows for high-speed AMS electronics targeting photonic communication channels.
• Must-have: Strong expertise in digital circuit design for high-speed analog/photonic links, including device bring-up, control, and digital signal processing.
• Must-have: Proven ability to collaborate across disciplines (architecture, chip design, RTL, DV, firmware, test) and to produce clear specifications and datasheets.
• Must-have: Strong analytical and problem-solving skills for ill-defined technical problems and demonstrated customer-facing communication skills.
• Must-have: Ability to work through validation cycles and correlate simulation with prototype measurements.
• Must-have: Ability to comply with U.S. export control requirements relevant to the role.
• Nice-to-have: Understanding of SerDes PCS, equalization techniques, and forward error-correction schemes.
• Nice-to-have: Prior experience with photonic engine products or extreme-scale data-center interconnects.

Education Requirements

Master's degree in Electrical or Computer Engineering is required. The posting specifies 12+ years of relevant experience in addition to the Master’s degree.

About the Company

Company: Lightmatter

Headquarters: Boston, Massachusetts, USA

Lightmatter develops photonic AI data-center infrastructure and optical chips for extreme-scale AI and HPC. The company invented the Passage 3D‑stacked photonics engine to provide high-bandwidth, low-latency interconnects across large-scale processors and raised $400M in Series D financing at a reported $4.4B valuation.