Jobs / United States / Lightmatter INC
Sr SDET– Firmware Automation
Lightmatter INC · 🇺🇸 Boston, MA; Mountain View, CA
Sponsorship verdict
Sponsorship possible
One solid signal, not two — worth applying, and worth asking about sponsorship early.
- Employer is on a government sponsor recordThe US Department of Labor certified 21 H-1B/E-3 labor condition applications for this employer between Oct 2025 and Jun 2026 (latest May 2026) — the step every H-1B hire needs first. USCIS also records 1 H-1B approvals in FY2023. Source: LCA disclosure data (US Department of Labor (OFLC)).
- The posting doesn’t mention sponsorshipSilence isn’t a refusal — ask the recruiter before investing much time.
- No salary bar for this routeH-1B has no fixed salary bar: the employer must pay at least the prevailing wage for the role and area. Cap-subject employers enter a lottery weighted by wage level. Source: https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2025/12/29/2025-23853/weighted-selection-process-for-registrants-and-petitioners-seeking-to-file-cap-subject-h-1b, rules effective 2026-02-27.
- What Lightmatter INC paid sponsored hires in similar roles1 certified filing for “Firmware Test & Deployment Automation Engineer” (Software Quality Assurance Analysts and Testers) in MA: $141k–$141k, median $141k. Most were filed at wage level III (100%) — 3 lottery entries, ≈46% projected selection odds for cap-subject employers. Source: US Department of Labor LCA disclosure data (Oct 2025 – Jun 2026).
- Confirmed live todayWhen a source last listed this job as open.
US H-1B: cap-subject employers enter a lottery weighted by wage level — Level I gets 1 entry, Level IV gets 4 (DHS projected selection odds ≈15% at Level I to ≈61% at Level IV). Universities and non-profit research employers are cap-exempt. The $100,000 fee for new petitions from abroad is currently blocked by a court order (appeal pending).
A verdict summarises public evidence; it is not legal advice and never a guarantee — the employer and the immigration authority decide. Sign in to factor in where you can already work.
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Sponsor Radar — Lightmatter INC
The US Department of Labor certified 21 H-1B/E-3 labor condition applications for this employer between Oct 2025 and Jun 2026 (latest May 2026) — the step every H-1B hire needs first. USCIS also records 1 H-1B approvals in FY2023. Source: LCA disclosure data (US Department of Labor (OFLC)).
Past sponsorship or register membership never guarantees sponsorship for this vacancy or for you. Full Sponsor Radar for Lightmatter INC →
About the role
Lightmatter is leading the revolution in AI data center infrastructure, enabling the next giant leaps in human progress. The company invented the world’s first 3D-stacked photonics engine, Passage™, capable of connecting thousands to millions of processors at the speed of light in extreme-scale data centers for the most advanced AI and HPC workloads. Lightmatter raised $400 million in its Series D round, reaching a valuation of $4.4 billion. We will continue to accelerate the development of data center photonics and grow every department at Lightmatter! If you're passionate about tackling complex challenges, making an impact, and being an expert in your craft, join our team of brilliant scientists, engineers, and accomplished industry leaders. Lightmatter is (re)inventing the future of computing with light! At Lightmatter, an SDET is a software engineer first , not a QA coordinator or manual tester. You'll design and build the frameworks, harnesses, and hardware-in-the-loop infrastructure that let firmware engineers test their own code continuously on real photonic hardware. You'll sit with the firmware team, spend time at the bench with oscilloscopes, debuggers, and optical instruments, and serve as the bridge between firmware and broader software and systems organizations. Responsibilities • Own the architecture and roadmap of the firmware test automation framework across products, targets, sites, and teams • Design and build stable automation for new firmware features and hardware, held to production-quality engineering standards • Build and operate HIL test infrastructure: bench and rack fixtures, device farms, power/reset control, instrument integration, and CI orchestration on real photonic hardware • Define test strategy, plans, and reporting; lead test plan reviews across teams • Integrate firmware testing into CI/CD so every change is built, flashed, exercised on hardware, and reported automatically • Own framework reliability and flaky test metrics as first-class engineering problems • Build results, telemetry, and log pipelines for triage, trend analysis, and release decisions • Debug failures across the full stack (firmware, board, instrument, fixture, test code) and partner with engineers to resolve them • Participate in firmware design reviews to influence testability and diagnostics early • Integrate with data center management interfaces (CMIS, OpenBMC, DMTF); debug embedded systems using GDB, JTAG, and logic analyzers • Define diagnostics and monitoring architecture for photonic transceivers • Mentor engineers on test architecture and write clear documentation for non-specialists Qualifications • 8+ years of professional software development, primarily on embedded products, including designing test frameworks and infrastructure • BS or MS in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, or equivalent experience • At least one automation framework or HIL system architected and built from scratch, adopted by other engineers, and in daily use and the ability to discuss its design, tradeoffs, and lessons learned • Strong Python: fixture and abstraction layers, hardware drivers, plugin/configuration architectures • Working fluency in embedded C/C++: able to read firmware drivers or state machines and write tests for edge cases • Experience owning CI/CD pipelines running tests on physical hardware (GitHub Actions, GitLab CI, Jenkins, or equivalent), including runner health, hardware allocation, and recovery • Track record of delivering robust automation under fast-changing requirements and hardware Preferred Qualifications • PhD, or MS with 8+ years in embedded test automation or firmware development • Experience testing firmware for optical transceivers, photonic systems, or precision analog/mix