Intern, Firmware

Ayar Labs • San Jose, CA

2d • Onsite

About The Position

Ayar Labs is seeking a Firmware Intern for a term from May through August 2027. The position is on-site at the San Jose office. The intern will join the Platform Firmware team, which develops firmware for multi-wavelength laser modules, optical engines, and management controllers. The work focuses on improving the observability, reliability, and predictive maintenance of optical hardware. Depending on the intern’s experience and interests, projects may involve telemetry, DevOps and hardware-in-the-loop infrastructure, or analysis of telemetry to identify early warnings of hardware degradation. The intern will be mentored by a senior engineer and work alongside Ayar Labs engineers.

The position is intended for a motivated student who can work independently and collaboratively, manage time effectively, and complete projects. Photonics experience is not required, but a willingness to learn the relevant physics is expected. The candidate must be actively pursuing a B.S., M.S., or Ph.D. in Computer Engineering, Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, or a related field. Immigration support is not offered except for F-1 status, and relocation support is not available.

Requirements

• Working knowledge of C, C++, and Python.
• Comfort with Linux and git.
• Hands-on experience debugging real hardware and a measurement-driven approach to troubleshooting.
• Ability to work both independently and collaboratively, self-manage time, and carry projects through to completion.
• Actively pursuing a B.S., M.S., or Ph.D. in Computer Engineering, Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, or a related field.
• Depth in one or more areas relevant to the assigned project: embedded firmware; lab instrumentation and test automation; firmware DevOps; data analysis and anomaly detection; or closed-loop control and signal processing.
• For embedded firmware work: experience programming microcontrollers in C, bare-metal or on a small RTOS such as FreeRTOS or Zephyr, including peripheral drivers over I2C, I3C, SPI, UART, ADC, and timers.
• For lab instrumentation and test automation work: experience with oscilloscopes, multimeters, power supplies, logic analyzers, and thermal chambers, including programmatic control using SCPI or VISA.
• For firmware DevOps work: experience with CI/CD pipelines, embedded unit-test frameworks, static analysis, coverage instrumentation, and build and artifact versioning.
• For data analysis and anomaly detection work: experience analyzing large measurement datasets in Python using Pandas, NumPy, or SciPy; extracting time-series trends; and applying threshold- or model-based drift detection.
• For closed-loop control and signal processing work: experience with PID or similar control loops, sampling and filtering, and reasoning about loop stability in the presence of real sensor noise.

Nice To Haves

• Prior experience with photonics is not required; willingness to learn the physics behind the measurements is desired.

Responsibilities

• Contribute to firmware-related projects involving optical hardware telemetry, DevOps and hardware-in-the-loop infrastructure, analysis of telemetry for early warning of hardware degradation, or a combination of these areas.
• Work with Ayar Labs engineers and receive mentorship from a senior engineer to advance project work.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Intern
• Education Level: No Education Listed