Director of Test Automation (AI Hardware)

Location: Austin, Texas preferred, or Sunnyvale, California; full-time onsite position.

Salary: $255K–$300K plus equity.

Company

hirify.global is a startup developing silicon-photonic, programmable-metasurface optical processing units for energy-efficient large-scale AI inference.

What you will do

• Define and own wafer-, component-, and system-level test strategy for T100 OPU modules and POC1 units.
• Develop wafer-level probe and test programs to screen known-good die before packaging.
• Establish system tests covering optical, electrical, and computational paths, including pass criteria for correct system output.
• Build automation for test sequences, probing, fixturing, instrument control, and production decisions.
• Design high-volume test data storage, schemas, and die-level traceability through packaging into finished units.
• Hire and lead the test team while remaining hands-on and collaborating with calibration, optical metrology, and integration engineers.

Requirements

• MS or PhD in engineering, physics, or computer science.
• 10+ years of hardware test engineering or test automation experience, including hiring and growing engineers.
• Experience building a test automation system from scratch and taking it through real production volume.
• Wafer-level testing of logic or photonic devices, including probing, test program development, and die screening before packaging.
• Experience testing complete systems where multiple subsystems interact and failures may not originate where they appear.
• Experience building or owning test data management systems, including schema, high-volume storage, and die-level traceability through packaging.
• Experience connecting test data across levels and applying AI/ML to predict downstream behavior, determine required tests, and set evidence-based screening criteria.
• Strong Python or similar software skills, including instrument control, and the ability to build an extensible framework.

Nice to have

• Optical or photonic testing involving fiber, free-space optics, detectors, and alignment.
• High-speed electrical measurement and signal integrity experience.
• Hardware-in-the-loop test frameworks.
• Testing systems whose accuracy depends on calibration rather than component tolerance.
• Experience moving a test process from first article into production and transferring it to a contract manufacturer.

Culture & Benefits

• Work on AI hardware and photonics technology in a collaborative startup environment.
• 100% coverage of base health plan premiums for employees and dependents, plus HSA contributions.
• Unlimited PTO.
• 401(k) matching and stock option opportunities.
• Dental, vision, life, hospital, critical illness, accident, and customizable voluntary benefits.