Back to jobs
New

Packaging Mechanical Design Internship - Summer 2027

Mountain View, CA

Lightmatter is leading the revolution in AI data center infrastructure, enabling the next giant leaps in human progress. The company invented the world’s first 3D-stacked photonics engine, Passage™, capable of connecting thousands to millions of processors at the speed of light in extreme-scale data centers for the most advanced AI and HPC workloads.

Lightmatter raised $400 million in its Series D round, reaching a valuation of $4.4 billion. We will continue to accelerate the development of data center photonics and grow every department at Lightmatter!

If you're passionate about tackling complex challenges, making an impact, and being an expert in your craft, join our team of brilliant scientists, engineers, and accomplished industry leaders.

Lightmatter is (re)inventing the future of computing with light!

About this job 

In this internship, you will build tools that automate how Lightmatter creates and checks the mechanical drawings behind our advanced photonic packages. As a member of the Packaging team, you will build a toolset that generates substrate and package drawings and runs GD&T sanity checks on them. The capability you build will be used on all upcoming substrate and package tapeouts, so your work will go into real product development from day one. You will also work on experiments that feed into a fundamental understanding of coupled thermal-structural-optical physics. 

You will be mentored by experienced packaging engineers while learning how package stack-ups, tolerancing, and drawing standards come together in leading-edge products for AI and high-performance compute. You will also see how drawing quality affects assembly, optical alignment, and reliability.

Responsibilities:

  • Build tools to automate the creation of substrate and package drawings from package design data, reducing manual CAD and drafting effort.
  • Develop automated GD&T sanity checks that catch common drawing errors before release, such as missing or inconsistent callouts, datum scheme issues, and tolerance conflicts.
  • Work with packaging, substrate design, and system engineers to capture drawing requirements, templates, and conventions, and turn them into repeatable workflows.
  • Validate your tools against existing released drawings and iterate based on feedback from engineers using them.
  • Plan and execute physical DOEs, including test setup, measurement, and data analysis, to build fundamental understanding of coupled thermal-structural-optical physics. 

Requirements: 

  • Currently pursuing a BS or MS in Mechanical Engineering or a related field.
  • Coursework in Engineering Drawing, Manufacturing Processes, Thermodynamics and Heat Transfer, Engineering Mechanics, Strength of Materials, Design of Machine Elements, and Computational Design.
  • Programming proficiency in Python (or a similar language) for scripting, data processing, and automation.
  • Familiarity with CAD tools such as SolidWorks or Creo.
  • Hands-on prototyping experience through coursework, capstone projects, research labs, or personal projects. Experience building, iterating, and validating physical assemblies is strongly valued.
  • Willingness and curiosity to learn from an exciting team!

Preferred Qualifications

  • Exposure to Geometric Dimensioning and Tolerancing (GD&T) and tolerance analysis concepts, including ASME Y14.5.
  • Internships, capstone, thesis, or research projects involving precision mechanical assembly, optical systems, or microelectronics packaging.
  • Experience using AI/ML tools or LLMs to build design automation workflows, such as automating tolerance analysis, CAD scripting, FMEA generation, or simulation post-processing.

We offer competitive compensation. The base salary range for this role determined based on location, experience, educational background, and market data.

Salary Range: total compensation goes beyond base salary, it also includes a new hire equity grant, annual performance-based equity, and other rewards that recognize your impact and contribution.

$43 - $47 USD

Benefits

  • Comprehensive Health Care Plan (Medical, Dental & Vision)
  • Retirement Savings Matching Program
  • Life Insurance (Basic, Voluntary & AD&D)
  • Generous Time Off (Vacation, Sick & Public Holidays)
  • Paid Family Leave
  • Short Term & Long Term Disability
  • Training & Development
  • Commuter Benefits
  • Flexible, hybrid workplace model
  • Equity grants (applicable to full-time employees)

Benefits eligibility may vary depending on your employment status and location. Lightmatter recruits, employs, trains, compensates, and promotes regardless of race, religion, color, national origin, sex, disability, age, veteran status, and other protected status as required by applicable law.

Export Control

Candidates should have capacity to comply with the federally mandated requirements of U.S. export control laws. 

Create a Job Alert

Interested in building your career at Lightmatter? Get future opportunities sent straight to your email.

Apply for this job

*

indicates a required field

Resume/CV*

Accepted file types: pdf, doc, docx, txt, rtf

Cover Letter

Accepted file types: pdf, doc, docx, txt, rtf

Education

Select...
Select...
Select...
Select...

Lightmatter follows a hybrid work model. 

U.S. Standard Demographic Questions

We invite applicants to share their demographic background. If you choose to complete this survey, your responses may be used to identify areas of improvement in our hiring process.
Select...
Select...
Select...
Select...
Select...
Select...

Voluntary Self-Identification

For government reporting purposes, we ask candidates to respond to the below self-identification survey. Completion of the form is entirely voluntary. Whatever your decision, it will not be considered in the hiring process or thereafter. Any information that you do provide will be recorded and maintained in a confidential file.

As set forth in Lightmatter’s Equal Employment Opportunity policy, we do not discriminate on the basis of any protected group status under any applicable law.

Select...
Select...
Race & Ethnicity Definitions

If you believe you belong to any of the categories of protected veterans listed below, please indicate by making the appropriate selection. As a government contractor subject to the Vietnam Era Veterans Readjustment Assistance Act (VEVRAA), we request this information in order to measure the effectiveness of the outreach and positive recruitment efforts we undertake pursuant to VEVRAA. Classification of protected categories is as follows:

A "disabled veteran" is one of the following: a veteran of the U.S. military, ground, naval or air service who is entitled to compensation (or who but for the receipt of military retired pay would be entitled to compensation) under laws administered by the Secretary of Veterans Affairs; or a person who was discharged or released from active duty because of a service-connected disability.

A "recently separated veteran" means any veteran during the three-year period beginning on the date of such veteran's discharge or release from active duty in the U.S. military, ground, naval, or air service.

An "active duty wartime or campaign badge veteran" means a veteran who served on active duty in the U.S. military, ground, naval or air service during a war, or in a campaign or expedition for which a campaign badge has been authorized under the laws administered by the Department of Defense.

An "Armed forces service medal veteran" means a veteran who, while serving on active duty in the U.S. military, ground, naval or air service, participated in a United States military operation for which an Armed Forces service medal was awarded pursuant to Executive Order 12985.

Select...