Senior Software Engineer - Photonic Ecosystem (f/m/d)

Location: Stuttgart or Munich, Germany; hybrid with a maximum of 1–2 remote days per week

Company

hirify.global develops photonic processing systems that compute with light as a scalable, energy-efficient alternative to transistor-based architectures for AI and high-performance computing.

What you will do

• Integrate hirify.global photonic hardware into base libraries such as OpenBLAS, Eigen, and NumPy and AI frameworks including PyTorch, JAX, TensorFlow, llama.cpp, and vllm.
• Drive upstream acceptance in open-source repositories and package managers so default installations support hirify.global hardware.
• Represent hirify.global in open-source communities, build trust with contributors, and maintain integrations over the long term.
• Guide ecosystem partners on software design, development, upstreaming, maintenance, and package delivery.
• Enhance the vendor-agnostic native photonic standard library and provide technical briefings and training.
• Coordinate with algorithms, compiler, device control, infrastructure, and system architecture teams to align external ecosystem needs with the development roadmap.

Requirements

• 5+ years of open-source software development experience with verifiable contributions, maintainership, and sustained community engagement.
• At least 2 years of experience developing AI or compute frameworks, with significant contributions to projects such as PyTorch, TensorFlow, JAX, llama.cpp, or vllm.
• Strong Python skills for framework development, integration, and ecosystem tooling.
• Deep knowledge of AI algorithms, neural network operations, linear algebra operations, hardware acceleration architectures, and performance optimization.
• Experience with GitHub, CI/CD pipelines, software testing frameworks, and package distribution.
• Fluent English is required; German is beneficial.

Nice to have

• Proficiency in C/C++ or Rust for performance-critical components.
• API design, testing, and documentation skills.

Culture & Benefits

• Work on photonic AI acceleration technology for sustainable computing and HPC.
• Own software, client solutions, and public technical materials with direct product impact.
• Collaborate with an international, cross-functional team specializing in photonics, processor design, and AI software.
• Work closely with company founders and senior leadership.
• Participate in a culture focused on technical excellence, open communication, and pragmatic problem-solving.