Company Description

Photonium builds next-generation AI design software for optical systems. We specialize in innovative solutions across sectors such as quantum technology, defense, aerospace, automotive, life sciences, consumer electronics, semiconductors, and manufacturing, where manually designing hardware is a major bottleneck. Photonium is backed by Y Combinator (X25) and part of the NVIDIA inception program.

Role Description

This is a full-time role for a Founding Machine Learning Engineer, located in NYC. The Founding ML Engineer will develop the core of Photonium’s optical design agent and/or deep learning infrastructure. You’ll build generative models that propose candidate configurations, use simulation tools as feedback environments, and implement reinforcement learning loops that continuously improve design outcomes. As one of our early technical hires, you’ll shape the foundation of our AI stack and work closely with the founding team (Harvard, Stanford, MIT), and network of optical consultants from Meta, Apple, and more.

What you'll do

•⁠ ⁠Build models to generate starting seed designs given constraints and performance specifications.

•⁠ ⁠Develop RL pipelines that interface with simulation and optimization engines to extract metrics, refine designs, and complement our real-world dataset with synthetic data.

•⁠ ⁠Collaborate with top optical engineers and researchers to embed domain expertise, validate designs, and iterate on real client projects.

What we're looking for

•⁠ ⁠Strong experience in building and deploying ML pipelines

•⁠ ⁠Interest in optics and physics-based optimization

•⁠ ⁠Familiarity with simulation tools is a plus

Contact: [email protected]

https://www.photoniumoptics.com