Senior/Staff Nanofabrication and Characterization Engineer (Nanophotonics)

Location: Austin, Texas, United States; full-time onsite

Salary: $160K–$190K annually plus equity

Company

hirify.global is an AI hardware startup developing silicon-photonic chips with programmable metasurfaces for energy-efficient optical vector-matrix multiplication and large-scale AI inference.

What you will do

• Develop complete multistep nanofabrication process flows and travelers from metasurface designs.
• Run electron-beam and optical/deep-UV lithography, thin-film deposition, etch, planarization, and multilayer integration.
• Integrate tunable optical material layers, assemble and seal cells, and dice, mount, and wire-bond devices.
• Inspect and cross-section devices using SEM, FIB, AFM, profilometry, and ellipsometry.
• Characterize optical and electro-optic response, compare measurements with simulations, and identify process or design causes of performance gaps.
• Manage university cleanroom access, tool scheduling, materials, run records, process transfer, and mentoring.

Requirements

• MS or PhD in Electrical Engineering, Materials Science, Applied Physics, Optics, or a related field, with thesis or work focused on nanofabrication.
• 3+ years of hands-on cleanroom experience fabricating nanophotonic, metasurface, plasmonic, MEMS, or semiconductor devices, including independent ownership of multistep process flows.
• Direct experience with electron-beam lithography, multilayer alignment at sub-200 nm feature sizes, resist processing, dose control, and proximity correction.
• Practical command of metal and dielectric deposition and dry etch, including recipe development for profile, selectivity, and uniformity.
• Proficiency with SEM, AFM, ellipsometry, and profilometry; FIB cross-sectioning experience is strongly desired.
• Experience measuring nanostructured devices using microscope-based reflection or transmission spectroscopy and polarization optics.
• Proficiency in Python and/or MATLAB for process, image, and automated measurement analysis, plus KLayout or L-Edit for mask design.
• Strong cleanroom safety practices with hazardous chemicals and gases, laser safety training, technical documentation, and collaboration with device, modeling, packaging, and facility teams.

Nice to have

• Experience in university or shared-user nanofabrication facilities and qualifying new tools within shared schedules.
• Damascene metallization, CMP, planarization, ALD liners, or multilevel interconnect-like stacks.
• Experience with liquid crystals, electro-optic polymers, phase-change materials, alignment layers, or cell assembly.
• Post-CMOS processing, heterogeneous integration, dicing, die attach, wire bonding, or electrical probing.
• Nanophotonic or metasurface design using FDTD, FEM, or RCWA and simulation-to-layout workflows.
• Statistical process control, design of experiments, yield analysis, or process transfer to commercial foundries.

Culture & Benefits

• Full-time onsite work in Austin as part of a collaborative AI hardware startup.
• 100% coverage of base health plan premiums for employees and dependents, plus HSA contributions.
• Unlimited PTO and voluntary dental, vision, life, hospital, critical illness, and accident insurance.
• 401(k) matching, stock option opportunities, and flexible personalized benefits.
• Work on silicon photonics and programmable metasurface technology for energy-efficient AI inference.