Staff Embedded Software Engineer at Lightmatter
San Diego, CA
$175,000–$210,000
Jul 21, 2026
San Diego, CA
Jul 22, 2026
What this job asks for AI summary
A senior embedded software engineering role focused on building and extending the device software and firmware stack for photonic compute and interconnect products. Day-to-day work involves defining control plane and diagnostics architecture, integrating with data center administration environments, and debugging embedded systems. Suited to engineers with a strong background in kernel/driver development, embedded systems, and Linux-based firmware.
Senior level · 6+ years · Boston, MA · Bachelor's required · Full-time
Pay in the description: $175,000–$210,000
“or” means any one of them counts — you don't need all of them.
Posted 2 times — it's one opening, so apply once.
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 460 people in the Boston, MA area plausibly meet what this posting asks for (software developers). range 340–600
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 $169,742 (middle half $134,780–$187,781). 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 (7)
The role title is a generic 'Software Engineer' with no level modifier, so advertised seniority is Unspecified; however, the 8+ years (BS) / 6+ years (MS) requirement and the scope of responsibilities (control plane architecture definition, customer engagements) support a Senior classification. The overall years minimum is set to 6, the lower bound of the stated range.
GDB and JTAG appear in both the Responsibilities section (as tools used on the job) and the Preferred Qualifications section. Because they are framed as 'familiarity with' under Preferred Qualifications — and the Responsibilities mention is descriptive of the work environment rather than a hard gate — they are marked as preferred.
CMIS, OpenBMC, and DMTF appear in both the Responsibilities section (as integration environments) and the Preferred Qualifications section (as 'experience with … such as'). The 'such as' framing and their placement under Preferred Qualifications indicate these are preferred rather than hard gates.
Python and C++ are listed under Preferred Qualifications as interchangeable options ('Python or C++'), so they are captured as a single preferred skill with C++ as the alternative.
Lightmatter is headquartered in Boston, MA; the posting mentions a flexible hybrid workplace model but does not indicate fully remote eligibility, so remote is set to false. The CBSA reflects the company's known headquarters location.
The alternative occupation of 15-1244 (Network and Computer Systems Administrators) was considered given the embedded/firmware/control-plane focus, but the primary day-to-day work is clearly writing and shipping firmware and device software, making 15-1252 the better fit.
Ignored 1 non-technology phrase(s) as skills (responsibilities/concepts, not named tools): device driver development.
Read the full posting
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