Chip Firmware Validation Engineer
About the job
- A Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Science, or a related field, with at least five years of ASIC firmware validation experience.
- Strong understanding of hardware-software integration.
- Practical knowledge of communication and control in embedded systems, peripherals, and buses.
- Experience in embedded software development.
- Experience developing commercial or enterprise-level software and firmware on Linux.
- Experience with Git and CMake for building and managing software projects.
- Hands-on experience with data gathering, analysis, and reporting.
- Proficiency with Python, C, C++, and MongoDB.
- Capacity to comply with federally mandated U.S. export control requirements.
- Collaborate across a multidisciplinary team including photonics, analog, digital, systems, and network experts to define the control architecture for photonic interconnect products.
- Drive software and firmware validation testing for photonic products.
- Debug and troubleshoot embedded systems using tools such as GDB, JTAG, and logic analyzers.
- Participate in defining product architecture and validation test plans to gather requirements and usability criteria.
- Experience with Snowflake reporting software.
- Experience with environments such as CMIS and OpenBMC, and familiarity with validation and reliability/FIT (Failure in Time) testing.
- Familiarity with optical test, measurement, and methodologies for characterizing optical components and systems.
- Experience developing firmware for photonic transceivers or similar systems.
About the company
Lightmatter develops photonic computing hardware to speed up AI workloads using light-based processing. Their photonic systems run AI tasks faster and use about 90% less energy than traditional processors. They target AI and autonomous vehicle workloads and collaborate with universities to advance electro-photonic systems. Revenue comes from hardware sales, software licenses, and partnerships, with a goal of bringing scalable photonic computing to market for faster, energy-efficient AI and AV applications.
Company Size
201-500
Company Stage
Series D
Total Funding
$822M
Headquarters
Mountain View, California
Founded
2017
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Simplify's Take
What believers are saying
- NVIDIA added Lightmatter to NVLink Fusion on May 21, 2026.
- Open CPX MSA joined Lightmatter on September 17, 2026, legitimizing its architecture.
- Lightmatter plans Guide DR sampling in Q4 2026 and CPX kits in Q1 2027.
What critics are saying
- Passage L20 CPX evaluation kits ship in Q1 2027, delaying revenue conversion.
- Broadcom, Marvell, and NVIDIA can bundle competing interconnects into incumbent platforms.
- If hyperscalers standardize on electrical or pluggable optics, Lightmatter's CPO thesis collapses.
What makes Lightmatter unique
- Lightmatter's Passage platform hit 1.6 Tbps per fiber in March 2026.
- Guide DR reaches 51.2 Tbps per laser module with liquid cooling.
- vClick Optics and bidirectional CPX cut fiber, connectors, and packaging complexity.
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Benefits
Health Insurance
Dental Insurance
Vision Insurance
Life Insurance
Disability Insurance
Health Savings Account/Flexible Spending Account
Unlimited Paid Time Off
Flexible Work Hours
Remote Work Options
Paid Vacation
Paid Sick Leave
Paid Holidays
Sabbatical Leave
Hybrid Work Options
Stock Options
Company Equity
401(k) Retirement Plan
Wellness Program
Mental Health Support
Gym Membership
Phone/Internet Stipend
Home Office Stipend
Commuter Benefits
Training & Development
Conference Attendance Budget
Professional Development Budget
Family Planning Benefits
Fertility Treatment Support
Adoption Assistance
Childcare Support
Elder Care Support
Relocation Assistance
Employee Referral Bonus
Tuition Reimbursement
Professional Certification Support
Mentorship Program
Meal Benefits
Employee Discounts
Company Social Events
Growth & Insights and Company News
6 month growth
↑ 1%1 year growth
↑ 0%2 year growth
↑ 1%Lightmatter has joined the Open CPX Multi-Source Agreement and launched the Passage L20 CPX, the industry's first Open CPX module for AI infrastructure with bidirectional optical link technology. The solution delivers 6.4 terabits per second in a single module whilst halving required fibre and connectors. The bidirectional technology combines transmit and receive on a single fibre by assigning each direction its own wavelength of light. In a 512-GPU scale-up pod, this saves more than 200 miles of fibre, reducing the total from approximately 130,000 fibres to 65,000, with around 16,000 fewer connectors. The reduction saves about 15 per cent of total scale-up interconnect network cost. Module evaluation kits are anticipated to ship in the first quarter of 2027.
Lightmatter, a photonic computing specialist, has joined NVIDIA's NVLink Fusion ecosystem to deliver high-performance optical connectivity for AI infrastructure. The company will provide Co-Packaged Optics and Near-Packaged Optics products compatible with NVIDIA's optical and SerDes technologies. Lightmatter's bi-directional optical link architecture will create a unified platform for semi-custom AI factories whilst reducing fibre and connector requirements by 50%. The technology enables semi-custom XPUs to connect with NVIDIA switch silicon through Lightmatter's products, creating seamless high-bandwidth connectivity for chips from various suppliers. The partnership combines Lightmatter's Passage CPO solutions with NVIDIA's NVLink Fusion architecture. Analysts view this collaboration as a critical milestone in the maturation of co-packaged optics, providing hyperscalers with a blueprint to overcome traditional I/O bottlenecks and scale AI clusters.
Lightmatter has unveiled Guide DR, a high-density laser network interface card that quadruples rack density compared to conventional external laser small form factor pluggables. The liquid-cooled LNIC relocates the light source from the faceplate into the chassis, solving scaling bottlenecks whilst leveraging existing cooling infrastructure. Built to OCP NIC 3.0 dimensions, a single Guide DR module can support up to 51.2 Tbps of aggregate bandwidth. Four modules in a 1 RU switch tray enable 204.8 Tbps of switching bandwidth, eliminating the need for larger 4 RU chassis with liquid-cooled lasers. The module supplies 200 mW of optical power per fibre across up to 64 fibres, driving 256 lanes at 200G each, with zero front-panel footprint. Guide DR will begin sampling in Q4 2026.
Lightmatter, a photonic computing company, has appointed Roy Kim as Vice President of Product to lead deployment of its photonic interconnect platform. Kim brings over 15 years of AI infrastructure experience from Google, AMD and NVIDIA. At Google since 2021, Kim served as Director of AI Infrastructure Product Management. He previously led Data Center GPU Product Management at AMD and spent eight years at NVIDIA in AI and high-performance computing roles. At Lightmatter, Kim will oversee product roadmap, management, marketing and strategy. The appointment follows significant product launches, including the Guide light engine in January and the Passage L20 optical engine in March. Lightmatter's technology aims to eliminate data bottlenecks in AI data centres through photonic interconnects.
Lightmatter has achieved a record-breaking 1.6 Tbps throughput per fibre with its Passage Co-Packaged Optics chiplet, marking a significant milestone in AI interconnect performance. The technology, developed in collaboration with Qualcomm Technologies, uses a 16-wavelength DWDM architecture and delivers up to eight times more bandwidth per fibre than existing solutions. The silicon-proven platform combines Lightmatter's photonic engine with Qualcomm Technologies' 112G PAM4 optical SerDes chiplet, addressing interconnect bottlenecks limiting AI model scaling. The architecture reduces power consumption whilst enabling connectivity for next-generation processors and switches, with Passage L-Series photonic engines on track to deliver 100 Tbps and beyond. The record-breaking Passage L-Series photonic interconnects are now available through evaluation kits for lead customer testing.