Hardware Validation Lead

CScale is building the interconnect for gigawatt-scale AI. As AI scale-up moves toward deployments spanning thousands of accelerators and dozens of racks, the network needs to deliver high bandwidth, predictable low latency, and continuous communication. CScale is building integrated optical interconnect designed for this new scale, enabling accelerators to work together like a single, much larger computer. But at this scale, performance is only part of the challenge. Optical failures are inevitable, and the system needs to keep running. CScale is designing the interconnect for continuity. Lasers will fail. Compute shouldn’t. The ambition is simple: Build AI interconnect you can take for granted. CScale came out of stealth in September 2026 with $145 million in Series C funding, bringing total funding to $188 million.

We are looking for a Hardware Validation Lead to build and lead the organization that proves our products work — from optical components and custom silicon through the integrated optical engine and into customer qualification. You will own validation strategy, the team, the lab, and the test hardware it runs on. This is a leadership role for someone who still understands the measurements deeply and is comfortable in the lab.

Responsibilities

• Build and lead the hardware validation organization — optical component, silicon, and optical engine validation engineers, board and test hardware engineers, and lab technicians

• Set validation strategy, requirements, and execution plans across components, silicon, and the integrated optical engine, from pre-silicon preparation through EVT, DVT, PVT, and qualification

• Define the signoff criteria and entry and exit gates for each build phase, and drive the readiness reviews that gate them

• Review silicon, photonics, package, and system architecture to identify integration risks, design gaps, and marginality that require corner testing across temperature, voltage, and process

• Influence design for testability early, advocating for on-chip test hooks, telemetry, and diagnostic monitors and for debuggable bring-up hardware

• Own the validation and bring-up board program — requirements intake across CMOS, packaging, optics, and systems, design standards and reviews, and external layout, fabrication, and assembly partners

• Build out and run the lab: space and infrastructure, a capital equipment roadmap that anticipates next-generation products, calibration and asset control, and lab safety

• Drive test automation, data infrastructure, and analytics so that validation is repeatable, scalable, and trustworthy across sites

• Lead technical triage and root-cause debugging across components, silicon, package, firmware, and system

• Own reliability and qualification testing in partnership with the reliability team, and lead joint qualification with customers and partners

• Transition validated products into manufacturing test and volume production

• Align executive stakeholders on validation roadmaps, resourcing trade-offs, schedule, and risk

Qualifications

• BS, MS, or PhD in Electrical Engineering, Optical Engineering, Physics, or a related field with 15+ years of hardware validation experience, including significant work on optical transceivers, photonics, or high-speed link products

• 5+ years leading validation teams of engineers and technicians, including hiring and scaling a team

• Track record of taking products through DVT, PVT, and qualification into volume production

• Strong technical depth in high-speed electrical and optical characterization, silicon bring-up, and photonics or laser validation

• Experience building or substantially expanding a hardware validation lab and its automation infrastructure

• Working knowledge of board design, SI, and PI sufficient to set requirements and lead a bring-up hardware program

• Fluency in IEEE 802.3, OIF, and optical MSA standards and in corner and statistical validation methods

• Strong communication skills and a record of aligning cross-functional and executive stakeholders

Preferred Qualifications

• Silicon photonics or co-packaged optics experience

• Experience leading customer qualification with hyperscale or OEM partners

• Reliability engineering background: HTOL, accelerated aging, Telcordia GR-468, and FIT rate modeling

• Experience scaling an organization during rapid growth, including career development frameworks

• Startup experience, or a demonstrated tolerance for building the process at the same time as the product