We are a small team working on a hard physics problem
Great Sky is three people building silicon photonic inference hardware in Boulder. We are adding carefully. The roles listed here are real openings where a single hire meaningfully changes what we can accomplish in the next 18 months.
What to expect if you join
With three people, each person owns a significant surface area. You will not be assigned tickets from a backlog. You will identify the next critical path item and pursue it. We expect everyone to have a strong opinion about what matters most in the next sprint.
Every architecture and integration decision starts from first principles. We do not adopt industry conventions without understanding why they exist and whether they apply to our physical system. New team members are expected to challenge assumptions and ask for derivations.
We work in-person in Boulder. Our characterization lab is part of daily work, not a special event. If you prefer remote work or live outside Colorado, these roles are not a good fit. The physical lab proximity is a deliberate choice, not an oversight.
Current openings
These are the three roles where we need additional depth in the next phase of development. Each is a senior individual-contributor position with direct access to the full technical team.
- Design and simulate MZI structures, directional couplers, and phase modulators in Lumerical MODE and FDTD
- Work with AIM Photonics and external foundries to define design rules and process corners for SiPh shuttle runs
- Characterize fabricated devices on the bench using tunable laser, optical spectrum analyzer, and lock-in amplifiers
- PhD or equivalent experience in silicon photonics, integrated optics, or photonic device physics required
- Own the Linux kernel module and PCIe DMA driver for the GSK-1 card; extend to support concurrent host access patterns
- Maintain and extend the Python SDK, PyTorch backend, and ONNX Runtime execution provider
- Build the calibration automation pipeline that runs phase-offset correction at power-on and after thermal excursions
- 5+ years in systems software, driver development, or ML framework internals; C++ and Python required
- Build and maintain automated test fixtures for wafer-level and packaged-device photonic characterization
- Define and execute measurement protocols for insertion loss, phase accuracy, modulator bandwidth, and thermal drift
- Correlate device measurements with fabrication parameters and feed results to device design team
- BS/MS in optics, photonics, or electrical engineering; hands-on photonic bench experience required
Send a note and tell us what you are working on
We do not use an applicant tracking system. Send a short email to [email protected] with your background and what you find interesting about the problem we are working on. Include any published work, open-source projects, or technical writing that shows how you think. We read every message.