Hardware Systems Technical Lead - Mountain View, CA, United States
$217,000 - $256,000 USD yearly
Originally posted 17 June 2026 by the employer.
Deliver board and system solutions for silicon photonics based artificial intelligence accelerators and interconnect platforms.
About the role
As a Hardware Systems Technical Lead, you will provide technical leadership to the Hardware Systems organization to deliver board and system solutions for silicon photonics based artificial intelligence accelerators and interconnect products. You will work closely with hardware, software, mechanical, packaging, and IC engineering teams to build system-level products.
What you'll do
- Collaborate with system architects and technical leads to define and develop hardware systems for photonic AI infrastructure applications. - Own hardware systems development throughout the full lifecycle, from concept through production. - Define, develop, and review PCBAs to meet system-level electrical, power, and interface requirements. - Lead hands-on integration, verification, and validation across bench bring-up, EVT/DVT, and production release. - Drive cross-functional collaboration with firmware, photonics, packaging, and software teams to resolve dependencies and manage tradeoffs. - Maintain hardware documentation for schematics, design reviews, test plans, and validation reports while mentoring team engineers.
What you'll need
- Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering or related discipline with 12+ years of relevant industry experience. - Demonstrated track record of taking multiple complex hardware systems from concept through production. - Deep knowledge of VRMs, high-speed SerDes, and interfaces/protocols including PCIe, Ethernet, SPI/QSPI, I3C, I2C, and JTAG. - Experience leading multi-disciplinary development, integration, and troubleshooting across electrical, mechanical, and firmware domains. - Ability to work in ambiguous and dynamic environments with a strong ownership mindset.
Nice to have
- Experience designing hardware systems for AI/HPC data center infrastructure, optical transceivers, or silicon photonics products. - Experience with Systems Engineering methodology, including requirements definition and traceability, FMEA, and EVT/DVT/PVT planning and execution. - Familiarity with advanced packaging technologies and high-density PCB design.
Skills: hardware systems, PCBA, high-speed SerDes, PCIe, Ethernet
This role has been open 128 days — well above the 107-day median for Hardware Systems Engineering roles.
Hardware Systems Engineering · Serdes Highspeed
|
Open roles in category
92
|
Median days open
107 d
|
Median salary
$200k
|
See the full market breakdown ▾Category comparison, skills in demand, and who else is hiring
| Metric | Lightmatter | All employers we track in this specialty (92 roles · 34 employers) |
|---|---|---|
| Open roles in this specialty | 2 | 92 |
| Open roles in the wider Software, Firmware & Systems family | 15 | 6298 · 144 employers |
| Median days open | 68 d | 107 d (−39 d vs this employer) |
| Median salary (USD postings) | — | $200k |
Skills observed across this category: hardware systems, PCBA, high-speed SerDes, PCIe, Ethernet
Who's hiring in this category
- NVIDIA · 15 open roles · median 37 d
- Qualcomm · 9 open roles · median 197 d
- AMD · 5 open roles · median 129 d
- Astera Labs · 4 open roles · median 36 d
- Intel Corporation · 4 open roles · median 12 d
- Keysight Technologies · 4 open roles · median 150 d
How we counted: 92 open Hardware Systems Engineering (Serdes Highspeed) roles from 34 employers tracked in the SemiconductorJobs index, counted 23 Oct 2026. Specialty figures count only roles carrying this exact specialty label, so an employer's related work in neighbouring specialties is not included there — it is counted in the wider Software, Firmware & Systems family row. Figures refresh nightly.