Systems Software Engineer, Hardware Validation

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

Our tech stack spans FPGA and ASIC logic, microcontroller firmware, Linux drivers and cross platform user-facing APIs, and every layer changes every week. We're hiring engineers, at more than one level, to keep them integrated, tested and releasable.

What Actually Matters

Code is cheaper to write than ever. Knowing what should be written, and what "done" means, is the job. We want someone with strong, well-reasoned opinions about how software should be organized and how test coverage should grow, who argues for them, and who changes their mind when the evidence says so.

Things we believe in as a team:

• Fix it at the source. A bug gets fixed where it lives, even when that's someone else's code. The friction of working in each other's areas is worth it.

• Live at the tip. Every repo tracks the latest of everything it depends on. Small, frequent bumps surface breaks while they're still cheap to fix.

• Duplicated code is broken code. Two copies drift apart, and then one of them is wrong.

• It doesn't work until someone else has run it on hardware. Your own simulation or bench is where you start, not where you're done.

Disagree with one? Tell us why when you apply.

What You'll Do

• Own releases from commit to customer: build, verify, version and ship product bundles (FPGA bitstreams, firmware, drivers, APIs), including field updates, with release notes and runbooks people trust.

• Grow our HIL CI to cover every subsystem, and bring each new product into it from its first bring-up board.

• Track every bug CI finds to its root cause, whether that's Python, Rust, firmware, a Linux driver or FPGA logic, then fix it.

• Take our products into the systems that use them: time sync, calibration, sensor fusion, and open-source ecosystems like OCP and ROS.

What We're Looking For

• 2+ years of software engineering experience, or equivalent depth from research, internships or serious personal projects. We'll scale scope to experience.

• Strong Python, and comfort debugging languages you don't write every day.

• Hands-on hardware experience: bring-up, reading schematics, and using lab instruments to tell a software bug from a board bug.

• CI/CD experience, ideally against real hardware.

• Proactive communicator who cares about documentation to support cross functional team members & customers.

Nice to Have

• Rust, C++ or embedded C (we use STM32)

• Linux device drivers, especially SPI and custom low-level interfaces

• Reading System Verilog well enough to debug across the FPGA boundary

• HIL rigs and lab automation (SCPI/VISA, self-hosted CI runners)

• Timing and signal-integrity debug across SPI, I2C, UART, Ethernet and JTAG/SWD, plus board rework

• Fiber optics and optical test equipment

• Datacenter networking, PTP, point clouds or ROS 2

• Supporting software that external customers depend on

What You'll Gain

• Ownership of the release and test architecture for our products, from first bring-up to shipping: real decisions, not someone else's pipeline.

• Close collaboration with hardware, optics, signal processing and perception engineers, and real influence over technical direction at an early-stage company.

• A path toward customer-facing integration work, if that interests you.

Life at Voyant

We build frontier hardware & software from our lab and office in Midtown Manhattan, where optical tables, lab benches and electronics sit alongside traditional office space. Our work is hands-on and primarily in person, but we don’t run on a rigid 9-to-5. We partner with customers across time zones, so some calls start early or run late, and we adjust schedules around them. We run a high-trust, high-accountability environment: you’ll own meaningful work, move quickly and often wear more than one hat. Voyant provides catered lunch every day at HQ, and we’re a diverse group of food lovers from around the world who enjoy sharing food, culture and technical ideas around the lunch table.

Equal Opportunity Employer

Voyant Photonics is an equal opportunity employer committed to building a diverse and inclusive workplace. We welcome applicants from all backgrounds and do not discriminate based on race, color, religion, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, pregnancy, marital or partnership status, age, national origin, citizenship, veteran or military status, disability, medical condition, genetic information, caregiver status, or any other characteristic protected by law.