Staff Electrical Design Engineer

Lightmatter•Mountain View, CA

23h•Hybrid

About The Position

Lightmatter is seeking a Staff Electrical Design Engineer to develop silicon-photonics-based AI accelerators and interconnect products. The engineer will lead board and system solutions that use Lightmatter technology for machine learning, AI, and large-scale interconnect platforms. The role owns hardware systems efforts and works across hardware and software teams, including mechanical, packaging, and IC engineering, to design, integrate, troubleshoot, and release system-level products. The position is open at Staff and Senior Staff levels; placement and salary depend on education, experience, and interview performance. The stated salary range is $186,000–$250,000 USD. Total compensation also includes new-hire equity, annual performance-based equity, and other rewards. The role involves defining system requirements with system architects and technical leads; designing power, memory, and interconnect circuits in analog and digital domains; selecting electrical and optical components; and developing conceptual designs, physical models, and simulations for chip modules and systems. The engineer oversees PCB layout, establishes electrical constraints, supports manufacturability and qualification, and performs laboratory validation. The position also leads cross-functional integration, supports contract manufacturers through prototype and production, works with component vendors and supply partners, and researches technologies and processes to meet product goals.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering.
At least 8 years of related experience in system-level electrical design, including successfully taking several products from concept to production.
Proficiency in schematic design using Cadence, Mentor, or Altium tools; Altium is preferred.
In-depth knowledge of VRMs, high-speed SERDES, CPUs, and interfaces or protocols such as PCIe, Ethernet, QSPI, I3C, and I2C.
At least 5 years of experience in laboratory experimentation, non-intrusive circuit debugging, and leading cross-functional integration teams.
Experience working with thermal solutions for integrated circuits and their board-level systems.
Familiarity with Product Lifecycle Management tools such as Oracle Agile, Arena, or Omnify PLM, and understanding of BOM and ECO management.
Capacity to comply with federally mandated U.S. export control requirements.

Nice To Haves

Experience designing electrical systems for networking or similar industries.
Knowledge of integrated circuit layout and designing a carrier PCBA for it.
Knowledge of common manufacturing and design processes.
Familiarity with Systems Engineering principles.
Familiarity with 3D mechanical CAD tools such as Solidworks or AutoCAD.

Responsibilities

Collaborate with the system architect and technical leads to define system-level hardware requirements and specifications.
Design power, memory, and interconnect circuits in analog and digital domains.
Identify electrical and optical components based on application needs and specifications from IC and photonics engineering teams.
Develop conceptual designs, physical models, and simulations of chip modules and systems based on fundamental concepts and system considerations.
Oversee and review PCB layout designs and provide detailed electrical constraint rules.
Ensure boards and systems are manufacturable using current technologies, with high yield and robustness.
Qualify chip and system electrical properties.
Perform laboratory validation of boards and systems.
Lead integration with mechanical, software, IC, and other related teams.
Support contract manufacturing during prototype and production to resolve issues.
Work with component vendors and other supply partners.
Research components, processes, and technologies to meet product goals.