Staff Systems Engineer, Architecture & Requirements

Neurophos • Austin, TX

14h • $185,000 - $215,000 • Onsite

About The Position

Neurophos is developing a novel computing platform that uses silicon photonics and an active, programmable metasurface to perform matrix multiplications at the speed of light, aiming for significantly higher energy efficiency and performance for large-scale AI inference compared to traditional electronic circuits. The company has secured $110M in Series A funding from prominent investors. This full-time, onsite position in Austin, TX, is seeking a skilled Systems Engineer to lead the architecture and requirements definition for the optical vector-matrix multiplication (OVMM) engine. The role involves translating product requirements into detailed specifications for various engineering teams (analog, digital, photonic, software), managing requirements traceability, and resolving interface conflicts to ensure smooth integration of this first-of-its-kind computing platform.

Requirements

• MS or PhD in Electrical Engineering, Applied Physics, or a closely related field, with emphasis on systems engineering or mixed-signal/optical system architecture.
• 5+ years in systems engineering, requirements management, or architecture definition for complex electro-optic, mixed-signal, or communications hardware.
• Demonstrated ability to build and maintain leveled requirements sets, interface control documents, and verification/traceability matrices, and to flow top-level requirements down into defensible subsystem allocations.
• Proven ability to quantify architectural trade-offs (performance, power, complexity, cost) and to make and defend architecture decisions across disciplines.
• Working fluency with signal-path and link-budget models (Python or MATLAB) sufficient to evaluate the impact of a trade study, even where day-to-day modeling is owned by others.
• Excellent written and verbal communication, with the credibility to negotiate and align priorities across Responsible Engineers, functional leads, and executive stakeholders.

Nice To Haves

• Experience with requirements-management tooling (DOORS, Jira, or similar) and version-controlled, machine-readable specification repositories (e.g., Git-based documentation).
• Familiarity with optical or RF communication systems and high-speed mixed-signal architecture.
• Experience defining product configuration and variant management for complex hardware systems.
• Exposure to formal gate-review processes (PDR/CDR-style) across internal teams and external design partners.
• Familiarity with Cadence Virtuoso and Spectre sufficient to review analog implementation against requirements.

Responsibilities

• Own and maintain the OVMM signal-path architecture, ensuring it remains internally consistent as subsystem designs and product requirements evolve.
• Translate product- and system-level requirements into subsystem and work-package-level specifications. Maintain a structured, leveled set of requirements with clear ownership and priorities assigned at each level.
• Define and maintain interface specifications between subsystems and disciplines (optics, analog, digital, software). Identify interface conflicts as designs evolve and drive them to resolution.
• Lead architecture trade studies, channel count, TX/RX configuration, aspect ratio, and similar structural choices, quantifying the resulting impact on performance, power, and complexity.
• Define and manage configuration and variant trades across product options, maintaining traceability between requirements and the configurations that satisfy them.
• Lead requirements reviews across functional teams, negotiate scope with Responsible Engineers, and resolve requirement conflicts before they propagate downstream.
• Partner with the Signal-Path Performance & Modeling focus area to validate architecture and configuration choices against the quantitative system model.
• Partner with the Calibration, Bring-Up & Verification focus area to ensure requirements and interfaces are verifiable and do not impede bring-up or calibration.
• Maintain requirements-management tooling and documentation (e.g., ticketing systems, version-controlled specification repositories) to keep the requirements set traceable and reviewable.
• Mentor engineers in specification discipline, requirements decomposition, and architecture trade-study methodology.

Benefits

• 100% coverage of base health plan premiums for you and your dependents, plus HSA contributions.
• Unlimited PTO.
• 401(k) matching and stock option opportunities.
• Full suite of voluntary benefits, including Dental, Vision, Life, Hospital, Critical Illness, and Accident insurance.
• Personalized Benefits. Choose the plans that fit your life and take the cash back for those that don’t.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Senior