Sensor Verification & Characterization Engineer (LiDAR)

Sensor Verification & Characterization Engineer (LiDAR) About us: Voyant Photonics builds silicon photonic chips that steer and switch light at high speed. They power next generation, chip-scale FMCW LiDAR for robotics and autonomy, and optical circuit switches (OCS) for AI data centers. Based in NYC, we’re a hands-on team designing, building, and deploying frontier hardware to solve problems that matter, from how machines see to how AI scales. About the role We're looking for a Sensor Verification & Characterization Engineer to join our Systems Team, reporting to the System Integration Lead. This role spans the full arc of sensor development: running early derisk experiments that shape specifications and validate our models; building verification benches for new subsystems; and characterizing full systems as they mature toward production. You'll work across multiple active programs, pushing our platform further down the product lifecycle while standing up verification for brand-new subsystems. What You'll Do: - Design and execute verification and characterization tests for full sensor systems and subsystems, ensuring designs meet performance requirements and building a clear picture of system behavior across operating conditions. - Plan and run rapid derisk experiments for new technologies and subsystems to inform specifications and architecture decisions, often before formal requirements exist. - Correlate measurements against simulation and analytical models, feeding results back to design and modeling teams to improve predictive accuracy. - Troubleshoot and debug system-level and subsystem-level issues, applying strong systems-engineering and first-principles physics reasoning to isolate root cause. - Generate clear test reports and well-formed hypotheses to share findings and drive decisions with the broader engineering team, including recommendations on specification limits and design tradeoffs. - Build, maintain, and automate test benches and lab equipment to support repeatable, efficient verification. - Adapt quickly to changing requirements, shifting priorities, and new problems as our programs evolve. - Bring creativity to solving design challenges under real-world constraints. - Collaborate closely with hardware, photonics, optics, firmware, and controls engineers throughout the system lifecycle, from bring-up through production support. What We're Looking For - BS in Electrical Engineering, Physics, or a related field (MS or PhD a plus). - 4+ years of hands-on experience in system or sensor test, verification, characterization, or early-stage technology derisking - though we're open to exceptional candidates at other experience levels who show strong potential and the right attitude. - Hands-on experience with lab equipment (oscilloscopes, power supplies, function generators, spectrum analyzers, logic analyzers) and demonstrated experience automating test equipment. - Proficiency in Python for test automation and data analysis. - Experience designing experiments under uncertainty: choosing what to measure, estimating measurement uncertainty, and drawing defensible conclusions from limited data. - Strong systems-level thinking and the ability to apply physics and engineering fundamentals to debug complex, ambiguous problems. - Excellent written and verbal communication skills — able to turn raw data and observations into clear reports and actionable hypotheses. - A self-starter who can thrive with minimal formal process, and is comfortable defining and communicating structure where it doesn't yet exist. - Comfortable moving between quick-turn exploratory experiments and disciplined, repeatable verification. - Enthusiasm for tackling new and unexpected problems, and the flexibi