Senior Software Engineer

About Luna Innovations & The Optics/Polarization Product Line

At Luna Innovations, we measure and manage light in optical fiber. Our Optics/Polarization product line, based out of Chino, CA, specializes in industry-leading components, modules, and test equipment for the characterization and control of optical polarization. Our instruments-ranging from dynamic optical delay/phase management, high-speed polarization state management, full function polarization light analyzer-are critical for optical communications, silicon photonics testing, and fiber optic sensing.

Role Overview

We are seeking a talented Software Engineer with at least 5 years of experience to join the software development team for photonics instrumentation. You will bridge the gap between complex optical hardware and user-facing data, writing the code that controls precision optical devices , manages high-speed data acquisition, and visualizes complex optical impairments in real time.

If you are passionate about hardware-software integration and want to build the logic that drives state-of-the-art optical test equipment, we want you on our team.

Key Responsibilities

• Hardware Control & Integration: Develop low-level firmware and high-level software to interface with custom optical hardware
• Data Acquisition & Processing: Design software architectures capable of handling high-speed data streams from optical detectors, ensuring seamless data stream and real-time processing.
• Algorithm Implementation: Translate complex optical physics and mathematics into efficient code, including optical parameter matrix manipulation (such as Stokes parameters), close-loop control based on measurement result etc.
• Application Development: Maintain and expand our user-facing data display software/GUI, creating intuitive interfaces that allow engineers to visualize data on a virtual oscilloscope or Poincare sphere.
• Automated Test Environments (ATE): Expose APIs and write SDKs so our instruments can be seamlessly integrated into our customers' larger manufacturing and test pipelines.
• Cross-Functional Collaboration: Work closely with optical, electrical, and systems engineers to define instrument capabilities, troubleshoot prototypes, and bring new photonic test equipment to market.

Required Skills & Experience

Building highly precise polarization instruments requires a specific blend of hardware intuition and software architecture. To be successful in this role, you will need:

• Experience: 5+ years of professional software engineering experience, specifically in environments where software interacts directly with physical hardware or scientific instrumentation.
• Core Languages: Proficiency in C/C++ (for low-level hardware control, embedded systems, and high-performance data processing) and Python (for scripting, automation, and data analysis).
• Hardware Interfacing: Deep understanding of communication protocols and hardware interfaces (e.g., SPI, I2C, UART, TCP/IP, USB, GPIB). You should be comfortable reading a hardware datasheet and writing the driver logic.
• Real-Time Processing: Experience with multithreading, memory management, and optimizing code for speed to ensure microsecond-level switching and data logging without latency.
• Mathematical & Analytical Proficiency: The software must calculate and map dynamic optical states. You should have a solid grasp of linear algebra and matrix math (crucial for Jones and Mueller matrices).
• Problem Solving: Exceptional ability to debug complex, multi-disciplinary systems where a software bug might actually be an electrical noise issue or an optical alignment problem.

Preferred Qualifications

• Domain knowledge in optics, photonics, or telecommunications (specifically concepts like optics IL, RL PDL, and polarization states).
• Experience designing and building Graphical User Interfaces (GUIs) for scientific or test measurement equipment.
• Experienced in Linux driver/App development
• Familiarity with lab equipment (oscilloscopes, spectrum analyzers, logic analyzers) for debugging software-hardware interactions.
• Instrument/equipment control language such as LabVIEW.

Salary & Level

• Salary will be commensurate with experience, and the level of the role may vary. We are ideally looking for a Senior Software Engineer.

Luna is an Equal Employment Opportunity Employer - Luna provides equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants for employment without regard to race, color, ancestry, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, marital status, religion, age, disability, gender identity, results of genetic testing, or service in the military or any other characteristic. Equal employment opportunity applies to all terms and conditions of employment, including hiring, placement, promotion, termination, layoff, recall, transfer, leave of absence, compensation, and training. Luna expressly prohibits any form of unlawful employee harassment or discrimination based on any of the characteristics mentioned above.