Staff Electrical Design Engineer

Job Title

Staff Electrical Design Engineer

Role Summary

Lead system- and board-level electrical design for next-generation silicon-photonics AI accelerators and interconnect products. Own hardware systems efforts from concept through production, coordinating across IC, photonics, mechanical, packaging, and software teams.

This role focuses on system architecture, PCB and module electrical design, integration, validation, and manufacturability for high-performance AI/HPC platforms.

Experience Level

Senior - the role requires substantial prior experience; the posting specifies 8+ years of related system-level electrical design experience.

Responsibilities

Accountable for system hardware definition, electrical design, integration, validation, and production support.

• Collaborate with system architects and technical leads to define system-level hardware requirements and specifications.
• Design electrical circuits for power, memory, and high-speed interconnects across analog and digital domains.
• Select electrical and optical components to meet IC and photonics specifications.
• Develop conceptual designs, physical models, and simulations for chip-modules and system-level assemblies.
• Oversee and review PCB layout, providing detailed electrical constraint rules and guidance.
• Ensure board and system manufacturability, yield, and robustness with current manufacturing technologies.
• Qualify chip and system electrical properties and perform laboratory validation of boards and systems.
• Lead integration efforts with mechanical, software, IC, packaging, and other engineering teams.
• Support contract manufacturers during prototype and production phases and work with component vendors and supply partners to resolve issues.
• Research and introduce new components, processes, and technologies to meet product goals.

Requirements

Must-have technical skills and experience; preferred skills summarized at the end.

• 8+ years of system-level electrical design experience with a track record of taking products from concept to production.
• Proficient in schematic design using Cadence, Mentor, or Altium tool suite (Altium preferred).
• In-depth knowledge of VRMs, high-speed SERDES, CPUs, and interfaces/protocols such as PCIe, Ethernet, QSPI, I3C, I2C, etc.
• 5+ years of hands-on lab experience in experimentation, non-intrusive circuit debugging, and leading cross-functional integration teams.
• Experience working with thermal solutions for integrated circuits and board-level systems.
• Familiarity with Product Lifecycle Management tools (e.g., Oracle Agile, Arena, Omnify) and understanding of BOM and ECO management.
• Ability to comply with U.S. export control laws and related export compliance requirements.
• Preferred: experience designing electrical systems for networking or similar industries; knowledge of IC layout and designing carrier PCBAs; familiarity with manufacturing and design processes; systems engineering principles; experience with 3D mechanical CAD (SolidWorks, AutoCAD).

Education Requirements

Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering is specified.

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.