Jobs / United States / Lightmatter INC
Sr. Staff Thermo-Mechanical Engineer
Lightmatter INC · 🇺🇸 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 “Staff Mechanical Design Engineer” (Mechanical Engineers) in CA: $197k–$197k, median $197k. 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).
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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! In this role, you will work on leading-edge packaging technologies to enable AI architectures that will set new industry standards regarding compute power, performance, and efficiency. You will collaborate with the packaging team to carry out the required structural analysis for packaging technologies under consideration, identify key failure modes under product use conditions, and run appropriate parametric studies to influence product and package design upstream. You will focus on thermo-mechanical analysis and characterization of advanced photonics packaging technologies, including 3D stack development, heterogeneous integration of lasers and novel fiber attach methods, to define design, material, and process solutions that successfully meet assembly and reliability requirements. The results of your work will lead to advanced package designs that meet power dissipation, optical, assembly, and reliability requirements while delivering a system-level solution for leading-edge products in the AI market. Responsibilities: • Serve as the technical authority for thermo-mechanical simulation within the packaging organization, setting standards for model fidelity, validation methodology, and documentation practices adopted across the team. • Identify capability gaps in simulation tooling, characterization methods, or material databases and champion fundamental investigations that strengthen the team's long-term technical foundation. • Develop finite element stress, warpage, and assembly process models for wafer-level and unit-level photonic packaging, identifying design, process, and material parameters to mitigate failure modes and optimize yield. • Perform analysis to identify key reliability risks under product use conditions and drive appropriate design and material solutions to improve product mechanical integrity. • Conduct multi-physics simulations including solder collapse modeling for bump architecture definition and thermal-structural analysis for packaging stress to meet thermal, electrical, and optical requirements. • Develop analytical or semi-empirical models for quick turn assessments for new product concepts. • Drive characterization and validation of mechanical designs and electronic assemblies through lab-scale prototyping and vendor-initiated experiments, closing the loop between simulation predictions and physical hardware. • Develop Python and MATLAB automation frameworks to scale simulation throughput and establish repeatable, high-efficiency modeling workflows. • Summarize and communicate findings and recommendations with authority to key stakeholders across Lightmatter, suppliers, and customers. • Write reports and document methodologies that serve as the technical foundation for the packaging team. Required Qualifications: • MS or PhD in Mechanical Engineering, Material Science, or a related engineering field. • Deep expertise in finite element analysis using commercial tools such as Ansys