Staff / Sr. Staff HW Test Automation Engineer - Boston, MA, United States
Originally posted 14 September 2026 by the employer — open 3 days.
About the role
This role involves building software that brings up, characterizes, and qualifies Lightmatter's photonic chips on hardware, from bench-top bring-up through production test on automated test equipment (ATE).
What you'll do
- Learn hardware to make informed software decisions.
- Design and build test software to automate device bring-up, characterization, and production test sequences across bench and ATE environments.
- Develop and maintain test methods, test flows, and instrument control code.
- Work with hardware and characterization engineers to translate device physics and test requirements into repeatable test software.
- Build and maintain data logging and results pipelines for accurate data capture and downstream usability.
- Debug test hardware/software integration issues across the device under test, fixture, instrument, and test code.
What you'll need
- Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering or related field.
- 8+ years of experience in hardware test software, ATE systems, or test architecture in semiconductor or photonics.
- Track record of owning test software architecture for a product line, including framework scaling decisions.
- Deep hands-on experience with ATE test method/test flow development and/or embedded test frameworks for hardware test automation.
- Fluency with instrumentation automation (SCPI/VISA or equivalent).
- Comfortable working at the hardware/software boundary, reading and reasoning about embedded software (C/C++), controls, or firmware.
Nice to have
- Master's/PhD with 3+ years of experience in hardware test software, ATE systems, or test architecture in semiconductor or photonics.
- Experience integrating ATE with wafer-level hardware (probers, handlers).
- Experience with photonic test instrumentation.
This role has been open 3 days — well below the 22-day median for Silicon Test Engineering roles.
Silicon Test Engineering · DFT Test
|
Open roles in category
399
|
Median days open
22 d
|
Median salary
$184k
|
See the full market breakdown ▾Category comparison, and who else is hiring
| Metric | Lightmatter | All employers we track in this specialty (399 roles · 68 employers) |
|---|---|---|
| Open roles in this specialty | 4 | 399 |
| Open roles in the wider Silicon Validation & Test family | 7 | 2040 · 110 employers |
| Median days open | 3 d | 22 d (−19 d vs this employer) |
| Median salary (USD postings) | — | $184k |
Who's hiring in this category
- Teradyne · 49 open roles · median 0 d
- Infineon Technologies · 36 open roles · median 27 d
- Renesas Electronics · 33 open roles · median 28 d
- Micron Technology · 25 open roles · median 18 d
- Qualcomm · 23 open roles · median 20 d
- AMD · 19 open roles · median 24 d
How we counted: 399 open Silicon Test Engineering (DFT Test) roles from 68 employers tracked in the SemiconductorJobs index, counted 18 Sept 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 Silicon Validation & Test family row. Figures refresh nightly.