Staff Hardware Test & Bring-Up Engineer

Job Title

Staff Hardware Test & Bring-Up Engineer

Role Summary

Lead development of automated system-level tests from hardware bring-up through high-volume manufacturing. Work with IC Design, DFT, Firmware, manufacturing, and equipment suppliers to transition photonic IC products to production and resolve hardware anomalies.

Position is based in Mountain View, CA and follows a hybrid workplace model.

Experience Level

Senior - typically requires 8+ years of hands-on experience in physical hardware bring-up and PCBA functional testing.

Responsibilities

Deliver and own system bring-up, test architecture, and automated test programs across evaluation and production environments.

• Lead end-to-end hardware bring-up for ATE hardware and partner with equipment suppliers to debug hardware anomalies.
• Lead initial electrical bring-up for photonic IC products on system-level evaluation boards.
• Architect and build robust automated system-level test software in Python or C/C++ for bench and production use.
• Collaborate with IC Design, DFT, and Firmware teams to define hardware test requirements and isolate silicon vs board-level issues.
• Integrate firmware diagnostic APIs and execute direct register read/write routines as part of verification and test flows.

Requirements

Must-have:

• 8+ years hands-on experience in physical hardware bring-up, PCBA functional testing, and custom ATE loadboard/socket integration for complex ASICs/SoCs.
• Expertise validating multi-rail power-up/power-down sequences and troubleshooting dynamic load behaviors.
• Practical mastery of JTAG, QSPI/QPI, I2C, and SPI communication protocols.
• Experience driving hardware verification and integrating firmware diagnostic APIs into test systems.
• Advanced proficiency in Python or C/C++ for writing test executives, automating sequences over hardware bridges, and controlling lab instrumentation programmatically.
• Expert hands-on use of bench equipment: DMMs, SMUs, programmable power supplies, oscilloscopes, and logic analyzers.
• Ability to work directly with external equipment suppliers to debug and resolve hardware issues during bring-up.
• Capacity to comply with U.S. export control laws.

Nice-to-have:

• Experience with embedded microcontrollers and low-level firmware driver debugging.
• Familiarity with boundary-scan (BSDL) tools, DFT concepts (MBIST, Scan), or standard ATE architectures.
• Basic understanding of eFUSE programming circuits, ADC/DAC calibration routines, or precision thermal sensing.

Education Requirements

Required: Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, or a related technical discipline. Preferred: Master’s degree in a related field. (Source lists EE/CE or related technical disciplines; no certifications or explicit equivalent-experience language was provided.)

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.