Staff Operations Program Manager

The job

LIVE Employer public job feed (private-sector employer) Source: the employer's public careers feed · Data: listed 2026-11-03

Job description

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!

Lightmatter's Supply Chain Operations team designs and executes the complex, global manufacturing networks required to build our world-first photonic engines at scale. We partner seamlessly with critical component vendors and Tier-1 manufacturing partners to deliver a resilient, cost-effective, and rapid flow of cutting-edge hardware.

As an Operations Program Manager, you will serve as the primary operational program owner driving supplier execution, Statement of Work governance, and master build planning across silicon foundries, Tier-1/Tier-2 OSATs, and Contract Manufacturers. Operating with high autonomy, you will bridge internal R&D, Packaging Engineering, Quality, and Commercial teams with external vendor leadership to drive NPI builds through to High-Volume Manufacturing.

In this role, you will immediately take operational ownership of active Passage and/or Guide programs. You will maintain complete control over multi-tier material availability tracking, Clear-To-Build readiness, vendor milestone enforcement, and cross-functional schedule alignment.

Core Responsibilities

• Serve as the senior operational leader owning the complete material development lifecycle from NPI through HVM. You will act as the primary operations counterpart to engineering and quality teams, collaborating directly with external vendors to ensure all hardware materials are realized and available to support the master schedule.
• Drive end-to-end operational execution for assigned electro-optical program lines by aligning customer and internal demand into master build plans spanning silicon foundries, OSATs, and Contract Manufacturers.
• Build and maintain virtual line-item Clear-To-Build (CTB) matrices across multi-tier suppliers. You will track component lead times and drive consigned material staging into OSAT and CM facilities to guarantee unblocked build execution.
• Partner with engineering leads to draft, enforce, and track vendor Statements of Work. You will conduct weekly operational progress reviews, hold suppliers accountable to milestone deliverables, and drive overall vendor execution metrics.
• Actively track and resolve critical-path dependencies that impact external manufacturing, driving internal teams to provide the design freeze sign-offs, ECO cut-ins, and test scripts required by vendor partners to proceed with production.
• Maintain transparent milestone risk logs, material readiness trackers, and build progress dashboards to consistently communicate program status and critical path risks to executive leadership with actionable mitigation plans.
• Own PLM workflows across the product lifecycle, which includes creating and managing Bills of Materials and directly managing the routing and approval of Engineering Change Orders.

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Supply Chain, Business Management, Engineering, or a related field, complemented by relevant operational experience.
• 8+ years of progressive experience in Operations Program Management or Partner Operations within high-tech hardware, semiconductors, optical networking, or silicon photonics.
• Proven track record directly managing external manufacturing partners, contract manufacturers, silicon foundries, or OSATs through complex NPI-to-HVM build cycles.
• Advanced expertise constructing multi-tier master schedules, tracking material availability, and enforcing line-item CTB matrices across multi-stage assembly flows.
• Executive presence, influence, and assertiveness necessary to drive both internal engineering teams and external partner program managers to strict milestone dates.
• Hands-on experience executing BOM management, ECO routing, and revision control within PLM systems, alongside working within ERP/MRP environments.

Preferred Qualifications

• A Master’s degree in Supply Chain Management, Industrial Engineering, or a technical discipline is strongly preferred.
• Highly value direct experience managing operational supplier partnerships specifically in electro-optical packaging, silicon photonics, high-speed optical transceivers, or AI compute hardware.
• Desire a deep understanding of multi-tier semiconductor transitions, from wafer sort through advanced packaging to final module assembly.
• Hands-on experience executing BOM management, ECO routing, and revision control within PLM software (e.g., Arena, Agile, Teamcenter, or similar).

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

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. 

Explore around this job

Field: Operations and Management Sub-niche: Program management All jobs at Lightmatter Jobs in California Jobs in Mountain View, CA California state guide

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About the role

This is a — role in the Operations and Management field (Program management) at Lightmatter.

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The city

Mountain View, CA is not one of the cities with its own page in our guides, so here is the state: California.

The state economy in brief

California is in the West region (Pacific division) and has 39,287,376 residents (the 1st largest of the 50 states and DC by population), with a median age of 37.9. Its economy produced about $4,438,822 million in the latest four quarters (BEA), 1st among states and DC, equal to $112,983 per resident.

Jobs and the labour market

The unemployment rate was 5.1% in 2026M09, which is 49th lowest of 51 (1st is the lowest). Employers had job openings equal to 3.6% of employment, 37th highest of 51, a measure of how hard it is to hire. The median wage across all occupations is $58,240 a year ($28.00 an hour), 14% above the national median ($58,240 against $50,980).

What people do and what it pays

The occupations with the most jobs in California are Home Health and Personal Care Aides (970,150 jobs, median $34,320); Fast Food and Counter Workers (449,840 jobs, median $42,280); Retail Salespersons (376,460 jobs, median $38,440); Laborers and Freight, Stock, and Material Movers, Hand (355,500 jobs, median $44,710); Registered Nurses (338,940 jobs, median $140,270). Among occupations with at least 2,000 jobs, the best paid are Airline Pilots, Copilots, and Flight Engineers (median $353,900); Psychiatrists (median $353,500); General Internal Medicine Physicians (median $313,890). Compared with the nation, the state is most specialised in farming, fishing, and forestry (4.1 times the national share of workers) and healthcare support (1.5 times the national share of workers).

Cost of living, taxes and workplace rules

Prices are above the national average in California: the regional price parity is 110.7 against 100 for the whole country (51st lowest of 51). Median gross rent is $2,036 a month and the median household income $99,122, so a year of rent equals 24.6% of income; the median home value is $734,700. The state minimum wage is $16.90 (the higher of state and federal rates applies to most workers). State income tax on wages: Graduated, top rate 13.30%. It is not a right-to-work state, so union contracts can require fees from covered workers. It runs a state paid family and medical leave programme.

People and commuting

27.0% of residents were born abroad and 37.1% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher. Among workers, 65.7% drive alone, 2.9% use public transit and 17.2% work from home; 19.4% commute 45 minutes or more.

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Career paths

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Project management (259) Supply chain and logistics (684) Business operations and strategy (1909) Executive and general management (2281)

Distances

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The employer

Lightmatter is the employer in this listing. See all its open jobs here →

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Other open jobs at Lightmatter

Similar jobs

Same sub-niche: Program management

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FAQ

What is the Staff Operations Program Manager job at Lightmatter?

A private-sector role in operations and management (program management) listed 7 days ago. The full description is on this page and on the employer's page.

Where is this job?

Mountain View, CA.

How do I apply?

Use the "View this job and apply on the employer's page" button. AtiveSite does not receive applications.

How much does it pay?

The listing does not publish pay, and we could not match the title to one official occupation.

What is the cost of living there?

See the state or country guide for rent, income and taxes.

How old is this listing?

It was posted on 2026-11-03 (7 days ago). Jobs older than 90 days are not shown.

Are there similar jobs?

Yes: browse program management jobs in California.

Sources and terms

• Job data: Lightmatter careers page public feed (listing dated 2026-11-03). The job disappears from this site when it disappears from the source.
• Wages and projections: BLS OEWS (May 2025) and Employment Projections 2025–35.
• City and county figures: Census Bureau ACS 2020–2024, BEA, BLS QCEW and LAUS, NASA POWER climatology; distances from Census Gazetteer coordinates.

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Sources

• BLS OEWS (wages and employment by occupation, May 2025)
• BLS Employment Projections 2025–35
• BLS Local Area Unemployment Statistics
• BLS JOLTS
• BLS State and Metro Area Employment
• Census Bureau American Community Survey (via Census Reporter)
• BEA GDP by state and Regional Price Parities
• IRS 2026 tax adjustments
• U.S. Department of Labor, minimum wage by state
• Tax Foundation state income tax rates 2026
• USAJOBS
• USCIS
• U.S. Department of State, visas
• NASA POWER climatology
• GeoNames / Census Gazetteer (coordinates)