Staff Embedded Software Engineer

Job Title

Staff Embedded Software Engineer

Role Summary

Develop and extend device software and firmware for photonic compute and photonic interconnect products. Work cross-functionally with photonics, analog, digital, systems, and network teams to define control plane, diagnostics, telemetry, virtualization, and remote administration features.

Role is based in Mountain View, CA with a flexible hybrid workplace model.

Experience Level

Senior level; expects substantial industry experience. See Education Requirements for degree and years details.

Responsibilities

Design, implement, and maintain embedded software and firmware components to support photonic transceivers and interconnects.

• Define control plane architecture for photonic interconnect products in collaboration with hardware and systems teams.
• Define diagnostics and monitoring architecture for photonic transceivers.
• Integrate device software with data center administration environments such as CMIS, OpenBMC, and DMTF.
• Debug and troubleshoot embedded systems using tools such as GDB, JTAG, and logic analyzers.
• Participate in customer engagements to gather requirements and usability criteria.
• Collaborate with software and hardware teams on telemetry, security, virtualization, and remote administration features.

Requirements

Must-have technical skills and experience for immediate contribution.

• Industry experience with device driver and kernel-side development.
• Strong hardware–software integration skills and practical knowledge of embedded peripherals and buses.
• Experience developing commercial/enterprise-grade software and firmware on Linux.
• Proficiency with Git and CMake for building and managing software projects.
• Hands-on experience debugging embedded systems (GDB, JTAG, logic analyzers) and troubleshooting production issues.
• Practical experience with communication and control in embedded systems.
• Ability to work across multidisciplinary teams and engage with customers to define requirements.
• Ability to comply with applicable U.S. export control laws.

Nice-to-have:

• Proficiency with Python or C++.
• Experience developing firmware for photonic transceivers or optical communication systems.
• Familiarity with CMIS, OpenBMC, and DMTF environments.
• Experience designing, simulating, or deploying control of autonomous systems.

Education Requirements

BS with 8+ years of relevant experience, or MS with 6+ years of relevant experience. Degree fields: Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, Robotics, or a related technical field.

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.