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Lightmatter is revolutionizing AI data center infrastructure through photonics technology. The company recently raised $400M in Series D funding at a $4.4B valuation and is scaling rapidly across all departments.
As a Senior SDET, you will be a software engineer first—not a QA coordinator. You'll architect and own the firmware test automation framework across all products, targets, and sites. Your work bridges firmware engineers and broader software/systems organizations, enabling continuous testing on real photonic hardware.
Key responsibilities include:
- Architect and own the firmware test automation framework roadmap across products and teams
- Design stable automation for new firmware features and hardware to production-quality standards
- Build and operate hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) test infrastructure: bench and rack fixtures, device farms, power/reset control, instrument integration, and CI orchestration on real photonic hardware
- Define test strategy, plans, and reporting; lead test plan reviews across teams
- Integrate firmware testing into CI/CD pipelines so every change is built, flashed, tested on hardware, and reported automatically
- Own framework reliability and flaky test metrics as first-class engineering problems
- Build results, telemetry, and log pipelines for triage, trend analysis, and release decisions
- Debug failures across the full stack (firmware, board, instrument, fixture, test code) and partner with engineers to resolve them
- Participate in firmware design reviews to influence testability and diagnostics early
- Integrate with data center management interfaces (CMIS, OpenBMC, DMTF); debug embedded systems using GDB, JTAG, and logic analyzers
- Define diagnostics and monitoring architecture for photonic transceivers
- Mentor engineers on test architecture and write clear documentation for non-specialists
You'll spend time at the bench with oscilloscopes, debuggers, and optical instruments, working closely with the firmware team.
**Requirements:**
- 8+ years of professional software development, primarily on embedded products, including designing test frameworks and infrastructure
- BS or MS in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, or equivalent experience
- At least one automation framework or HIL system architected and built from scratch, adopted by other engineers, and in daily use; ability to discuss its design, tradeoffs, and lessons learned
- Strong Python: fixture and abstraction layers, hardware drivers, plugin/configuration architectures
- Working fluency in embedded C/C++: able to read firmware drivers or state machines and write tests for edge cases
- Experience owning CI/CD pipelines running tests on physical hardware (GitHub Actions, GitLab CI, Jenkins, or equivalent), including runner health, hardware allocation, and recovery
- Track record of delivering robust automation under fast-changing requirements and hardware
**Preferred Qualifications:**
- PhD, or MS with 8+ years in embedded test automation or firmware development
- Experience testing firmware for optical transceivers, photonic systems, or precision analog/mixed-signal hardware
- Familiarity with CMIS, OpenBMC, or DMTF/Redfish
- Experience with Pytest ecosystem and test tooling for Zephyr or FreeRTOS (Twister, ztest, Renode, QEMU, or similar)
- Experience with optical and electrical test and measurement equipment
- Startup experience
- Thoughtful use of AI-assisted tools in test generation, triage, or analytics
Note: Candidates should have capacity to comply with U.S. export control laws.
