Job description

Technical Program Manager - Contract Location: San Jose (on-site) Ayar Labs is shattering AI data bottlenecks by moving data at the speed of light. As pioneers of co-packaged optics (CPO), we are using light instead of electricity to move data faster, further, and with a fraction of the energy needed to fuel the explosive growth of AI models. Backed by industry giants like NVIDIA, AMD and Intel and manufactured in partnership with the world’s leading semiconductor ecosystem, Ayar Labs’ co-packaged optics solution is key to unleashing next-generation AI scale-up architectures. We are looking for a software engineer to build the data tools and pipelines that our hardware engineering teams rely on every day. You'll sit at the intersection of software and silicon: turning raw test, lab, and design data into clean, queryable datasets, and building the internal applications and dashboards engineers use to analyze results and make decisions faster. This is a hands-on role for someone who likes owning a problem end to end, from talking with engineers about what they need, to designing the pipeline, to shipping the web interface on top of it. Key Responsibilities: • Develop internal systems and workflow automations to support engineering operations using AI tools and frameworks • Develop tools to manage program schedules, budgets, and resource plans to ensure on-time and on-budget program delivery • Design, build, and maintain data pipelines that ingest, clean, and transform engineering data (test results, characterization data, yield and validation metrics) from multiple sources. • Automated validation reporting by integrating Jira data with internal documentation, generating standardized reports for customers and internal teams. • Develop internal tools and web applications that let hardware, test, and product engineers explore data, run analyses, and share results. • Build interactive dashboards and visualizations that make complex datasets easy to understand. • Model and manage data in relational databases; write efficient, well-structured SQL. • Automate repetitive engineering workflows and reporting to save teams time and reduce manual error. • Partner directly with engineering stakeholders to gather requirements, prioritize features, and iterate on tools based on feedback. • Write tested, documented, maintainable code and participate in code reviews. • Monitor pipeline health and data quality, and troubleshoot issues when they come up. • Work with cross-functional teams to define project requirements and ensure alignment on project goals, milestones, and deliverables Required Qualifications: • Bachelor's degree in Engineering or a related field, or equivalent practical experience. • 1+ years of professional or substantial project experience in software or data engineering. • Proficient in using JIRA and MS project tracking for building plans, schedule and tracking weekly progress • Familiarity with product development and commercialization processes • Familiarity with data visualization and building dashboards or interactive data views. • Experience leveraging modular agent frameworks (such as Agent Kit and Claude CLI Kit) to automate repetitive tasks. • Clear communicator who can work with non-software engineers to translate their needs into working tools. Preferred Qualifications: • A portfolio of shipped projects, such as a public data analytics web app or open-source work. • Experience with BI or visualization tools (Tableau, Power BI, Grafana, Plotly/Dash). • Experience in the semiconductor, photonics, or hardware industry, or working with test and measurement data. Hourly wage: $85 - $100/hour NOTE TO RECRUITERS: Principals only. We are not accepting resumes from recruiters for this position. Remuneration for recruiting activities is only applicable subject to a signed and executed agreement between the parties. Please don’t send candidates to Ayar Labs, and do not contact our managers. Ayar Labs is an Equal Opportunity Employer and is strongly committed to all policies which will afford equal opportunity employment to all qualified persons without regard to age, sex, national origin, race, color, ethnicity, creed, religion, gender identity, sexual orientation, disability, veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law. It is the policy of Ayar Labs to provide reasonable accommodation when requested by a qualified applicant or employee with a disability, unless such accommodation would cause an undue hardship. Veterans are more than welcome and encouraged to apply.

Requirements

Must-haves

Technical Program Manager - Contract
Location: San Jose (on-site)
This is a hands-on role for someone who likes owning a problem end to end, from talking with engineers about what they need, to designing the pipeline, to shipping the web interface on top of it.
Develop internal systems and workflow automations to support engineering operations using AI tools and frameworks
Develop tools to manage program schedules, budgets, and resource plans to ensure on-time and on-budget program delivery
Design, build, and maintain data pipelines that ingest, clean, and transform engineering data (test results, characterization data, yield and validation metrics) from multiple sources.
Automated validation reporting by integrating Jira data with internal documentation, generating standardized reports for customers and internal teams.
Develop internal tools and web applications that let hardware, test, and product engineers explore data, run analyses, and share results.
Build interactive dashboards and visualizations that make complex datasets easy to understand.
Model and manage data in relational databases; write efficient, well-structured SQL.
Automate repetitive engineering workflows and reporting to save teams time and reduce manual error.
Partner directly with engineering stakeholders to gather requirements, prioritize features, and iterate on tools based on feedback.
Write tested, documented, maintainable code and participate in code reviews.
Monitor pipeline health and data quality, and troubleshoot issues when they come up.
Work with cross-functional teams to define project requirements and ensure alignment on project goals, milestones, and deliverables
Bachelor's degree in Engineering or a related field, or equivalent practical experience.
1+ years of professional or substantial project experience in software or data engineering.
Proficient in using JIRA and MS project tracking for building plans, schedule and tracking weekly progress
Familiarity with product development and commercialization processes
Familiarity with data visualization and building dashboards or interactive data views.

Nice-to-haves

A portfolio of shipped projects, such as a public data analytics web app or open-source work.
Experience with BI or visualization tools (Tableau, Power BI, Grafana, Plotly/Dash).
Experience in the semiconductor, photonics, or hardware industry, or working with test and measurement data.
Hourly wage: $85 - $100/hour

Application prep

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