Sr. Firmware Development & Test Automation Engineer at Lightmatter
Boston, MA
$178,000–$225,000
Jul 21, 2026
Boston, MA
Jul 22, 2026
What this job asks for AI summary
A senior QA engineering role focused on testing embedded software and firmware for photonic compute and interconnect hardware. Day-to-day work involves building and maintaining CI/CD pipelines, writing automated test scripts in Python or Bash, conducting Hardware-in-the-Loop testing, and using low-level debugging tools such as JTAG debuggers and protocol analyzers. Suits an experienced embedded software tester comfortable working across hardware and software teams.
Senior level · 6+ years · Boston, MA · Bachelor's required · Full-time
Pay in the description: $178,000–$225,000
“or” means any one of them counts — you don't need all of them.
We read this from the posting text with AI. Skim the description below before ruling yourself out.
How this req sits in the market our data
Roughly 5 people in the Boston, MA area plausibly meet what this posting asks for (software quality assurance analysts and testers). range 1–8
Applicant volume Moderate — A normal amount of company. The rare requirements below are what will separate a shortlisted application from the rest.
Rare in this occupation — lead with these, and say what you built with them.
Most people in this occupation already list these. Still required — just not what gets you shortlisted.
What the occupation pays Median $124,897 (middle half $81,391–$145,858). This posting is about at that midpoint.
Estimated from BLS employment for this occupation and area, per-skill prevalence across our listing corpus, and published wage benchmarks — as of Jul 28, 2026. It is a model, not a headcount.
Why we read it this way (9)
The posting states 'BS and 8+ years or MS and 6+ years' — the overall years minimum is set to 6 (the lower bound when a Master's is held). A Bachelor's holder would need 8+ years.
Lightmatter's primary office is in Boston, MA; the posting describes a 'flexible, hybrid workplace model' but does not indicate fully remote eligibility, so remote is set to false.
Jenkins, GitHub Actions, GitLab CI, and CircleCI are listed together as examples of CI/CD platforms in the requirements section; Jenkins is used as the primary name with the others as alternatives.
PyTest and CppUtest are listed together in the requirements section; PyTest is used as the primary with CppUtest as an alternative.
JTAG debuggers, oscilloscopes, and protocol analyzers are listed as required knowledge; specific product examples (Lauterbach TRACE32, Tektronix, Wireshark/Saleae/Aardvark) appear parenthetically. Wireshark, Saleae, and Aardvark are captured separately under Preferred as they appear in the debugging tools context alongside the preferred qualifications narrative.
I2C, SPI, UART, and Ethernet are listed under Preferred Qualifications as peripheral bus/communication protocol knowledge; I2C is used as the primary with the others as alternatives since they represent the same category requirement.
Experience forming and leading a QA team and mentoring are listed under Preferred Qualifications — these are soft/leadership skills and are not emitted as concrete technology skills.
The salary range ($178,000–$225,000) is stated as base salary only; total compensation also includes equity grants and performance bonuses per the posting.
Ignored 1 non-technology phrase(s) as skills (responsibilities/concepts, not named tools): Static analysis.
Read the full posting
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