Photonics Account Manager – 100%

Location: Hybrid in Zürich, Switzerland; regular international travel to tradeshows, conferences, and customer visits is required. Regular meetings outside standard European office hours are also required to accommodate customers in different time zones.

Company

hirify.global is an early-phase startup developing photonic integrated circuits based on thin-film lithium niobate for telecommunications, datacom, and related applications.

What you will do

• Own customer engagements from kickoff and design submission through DRC reporting, MPW run delivery, shipment, invoicing, and after-sales support.
• Track deliverables and open items across multiple simultaneous runs and act as the primary customer-facing contact for project status.
• Coordinate technical questions and timelines across R&D, operations, design, process engineering, fab partners, and OSATs.
• Maintain accurate CRM records and develop scalable customer-journey processes, best practices, and SOPs across CRM, portal, PLM, and ERP tools.
• Help shape and maintain the customer portal for traceable sharing of PDKs, technical updates, presentations, shipment details, and delivery notes.
• Build relationships with customer program managers, photonics leaders, and engineering teams while representing hirify.global at industry events.

Requirements

• Master’s degree or PhD in Photonics, Engineering, Physics, or a related technical field.
• 3–7 years of experience in technical sales, account management, customer project or program management, or customer success in a semiconductor or photonics environment.
• Experience managing multiple simultaneous customer engagements with complex technical deliverables and tight timelines.
• Sufficient photonics or semiconductor literacy to discuss DRC violations, insertion-loss specifications, and fabrication yield with engineering teams; chip-design experience is not required.
• Exceptional organizational discipline, including tracking open items, following up, and maintaining accurate project information.
• Strong customer-centric communication skills, including translating complex internal status into clear customer-facing language and concise documents without losing accuracy.
• Ability to coordinate through indirect leadership, work with operations and engineering teams, and communicate with external parties across cultural differences.
• Fluency in English is required.
• Ability to work in a fast-paced startup environment with flexibility, ownership, resilience, and comfort developing processes that are still being built.

Nice to have

• Business or project management training.
• Foundry or contract manufacturing experience.
• German, French, Mandarin, or another Asian language.

Culture & Benefits

• Flexible working hours, with regular customer meetings outside standard European office hours.
• Competitive compensation and benefits package.
• Employee stock option plan and fully covered Pillar Two.
• Generous vacation.
• Opportunity to contribute to a cutting-edge photonics manufacturing initiative in an early-phase startup.
• Collaborative, innovative, inclusive, and result-driven work environment.