Senior Optical Test Development Engineer

About Lyte

Lyte builds perception systems for Physical AI operating in complex environments. The company combines custom silicon, integrated sensors, and software into a unified platform for robotics, mobility, and next-generation automation. Lyte is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California, with a global presence. For more information, visit www.lyte.ai

If you’re excited about building impactful technology in a dynamic, hands-on environment, we’d love to hear from you!

About the role

Lyte has entered production and is shipping its perception platform to robotics customers.
We are hiring a hands-on optical test engineer to own the testers that screen our incoming optical components and verify our outgoing optical subsystems, from lab concept to mass production.
You will define how each part is measured, prove the method in the lab, specify the tester, and work with an external tester integrator to build, accept and replicate it on the manufacturing floor at our partners in Asia.
The optics you will test serve Lyte’s laser-based 4D sensing and range from lenses and micro-optics to full optical subsystems.

What you’ll do

• Own optical testers from concept to mass production. Write the equipment specification, lead design reviews with the external tester integrator, run factory acceptance testing (FAT) at the integrator and site acceptance testing (SAT) at the contract manufacturer (CM), and hand qualified stations to operations.
• Develop each measurement method yourself before it is specified. Build the lab prototype: select instruments, design opto-mechanical fixturing and motion, write the control software, and prove repeatability with gauge repeatability and reproducibility (gauge R&R) studies.
• Deliver incoming quality control (IQC) stations that screen lenses, micro-optics, optical windows and optical subassemblies against Lyte specifications before they enter assembly.
• Deliver outgoing quality control (OQC) stations that verify optical subsystems, and full modules where scope requires, before shipment: alignment, optical power and transmittance, modulation transfer function (MTF) and resolution, wavefront error, back focal distance, and stray light.
• Set acceptance limits from optical and opto-mechanical tolerances, with process capability (Cp/Cpk) targets agreed with optical design and quality engineering.
• Prove that subsystem results predict system performance by correlating them, with systems engineering, to 4D sensing metrics: range accuracy and precision, signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), signal intensity, and point-cloud quality.
• Scale each qualified tester across lines and sites with the automation teams at our CM, outsourced semiconductor assembly and test (OSAT), and final assembly partners, and prove tool-to-tool matching on every copy.
• Keep the test line healthy in volume: train operators, write work instructions, support pilot builds through ramp, and own first-pass yield, throughput and overall equipment effectiveness (OEE) using statistical process control (SPC), root-cause analysis, and corrective and preventive action.
• Maintain golden units, calibration standards and traceability for all IQC and OQC equipment, and connect station data to the manufacturing execution system (MES).

What success looks like in your first year

• First 90 days: learn the optical subsystem and its specifications, review the current IQC and OQC plans and lab setups, agree on a tester roadmap with your manager, and issue the equipment specification for the first priority tester to the integrator.
• By 6 months: the first tester has passed FAT at the integrator and SAT at the CM, with gauge R&R and correlation to lab reference data complete.
• By 12 months: qualified testers are replicated across production lines with proven tool-to-tool matching, running in volume with yield, throughput and OEE reported, and daily operation is handed to the manufacturing team.

Required Qualifications

• B.S. in optical engineering, photonics, physics, electrical or mechanical engineering, or a related field, or equivalent hands-on test development experience.
• 5+ years developing automated production test equipment for optical or optoelectronic products, such as camera modules, lens assemblies, laser or photodetector modules, or lidar and other electro-optical sensors.
• Recent, hands-on factory-floor experience taking an optical tester from lab prototype into volume production at a CM, OSAT or supplier site, including replicating it as multiple matched stations.
• Experience writing equipment specifications and managing an external equipment builder or test integrator through factory and site acceptance.
• Hands-on use of optical test instruments: MTF or resolution benches, collimators, interferometers, optical power meters, beam profilers, and spectrometers or optical spectrum analyzers.
• Test automation programming in Python or LabVIEW (C++, C# or MATLAB also welcome) for instrument and motion control, data acquisition, and pass/fail logic.
• Working knowledge of measurement system analysis and production statistics: gauge R&R, Cp/Cpk and SPC.
• Willingness to travel to manufacturing sites in Asia up to 25% of the time.

Preferred Qualifications

• Test experience with lidar or laser transmitter and receiver optics; frequency-modulated continuous-wave (FMCW) or other coherent detection systems is a strong plus.
• Camera and lens metrology: distortion mapping, chief ray angle, focal length, and stray light and ghost image characterization.
• Micro-optics or active alignment processes in production.
• MES integration, SEMI Equipment Communications Standard and Generic Equipment Model (SECS/GEM), or other shop-floor data collection systems.
• Machine vision and robotic or conveyor part handling in production test stations.
• JMP or Minitab for data analysis, and SolidWorks for fixture design.
• Working relationships with contract manufacturing and OSAT partners in Taiwan or Southeast Asia.
• M.S. or Ph.D. in a related field.

Benefits (subject to location and local regulations)

• Salary and equity (equity grant is set at the offer stage)
• Comprehensive medical, dental, and vision coverage
• 401(k) retirement plan
• Flexible vacation and time-off policy
• Collaborative, fast-paced, and inclusive work environment
• Opportunity to work on cutting-edge technologies with a highly cross-functional team