Systems Lead

About Ayo

Ayo is a venture-backed early-stage startup that will radically redefine how humanity performs compute for AI. Our photonic processors will provide orders of magnitude improvement in speed and power efficiency in comparison to conventional digital compute platforms by taking advantage of the natural parallelism, speed and energy efficiency of light.

The Role

We are seeking a Systems Lead to join Ayo as a core member of our engineering team. You will sit at the intersection of our integrated photonics, integrated electronics, hardware, and AI teams, making sure the pieces come together into working prototypes and products. You will drive the technical rigor behind our system-level models and simulations, and serve as a key technical and programmatic point of contact for commercial and government customer interactions. This is a high-visibility role for someone who wants to own outcomes across disciplines, not just execute within one.

What You'll Do

• Coordinate across the integrated photonics, integrated electronics, hardware, and AI teams to keep system-level interfaces, timelines, and technical dependencies aligned

• Drive cross-team projects from kickoff through completion, identifying and resolving technical and organizational bottlenecks

• Make sure the engineering teams are collecting the right data and building the models and simulations needed to validate system-level performance

• Serve as a primary technical and programmatic point of contact for government and commercial customers, including preparing progress reports, technical briefings, and program review decks

• Support new business activities including writing proposals for government and commercial customers

• Translate system-level requirements into scoped technical work across teams

• Build and communicate milestone-based program execution plans, including scheduling, resource management, and risk management

• Track project milestones, technical risks, and dependencies at the system level

What We're Looking For

• Both deep and broad technical experience spanning multiple engineering disciplines in a hardware or deep-tech environment.

• Must have prior experience with photonic systems

• Comfortable engaging deeply with technical work you did not personally design, and asking the right questions to keep it on track

• Strong written and verbal communication skills, with experience producing technical reports and stakeholder-facing presentations

• Experience with systems engineering practices such as requirements definition, verification planning, or cross-team technical coordination

• Experience building system-level models or simulations

• Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering, Photonics, Physics, or a related field

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience working on DARPA or other government-funded R&D programs

• Background in integrated photonics, semiconductors, or related hardware domains

• Startup or small-team experience

Why Ayo

• You'll be a foundational hire connecting our technical teams to our external stakeholders, shaping how the company communicates progress and how our subsystems come together.

• We are working on a genuinely hard and interesting problem: unseating the GPU as the dominant AI compute platform.

• Early-stage means real ownership, real impact, and meaningful equity.

• Competitive salary. Equity commensurate with stage and seniority. Benefits package including health, dental, and vision.

• Fully onsite in Boston. We are a collaborative, in-person team.