Co-Founder, Head of Foundry Enablement and Photonic Integration

About the Role

We are seeking a Co-founder, Head of Foundry Enablement and Photonic Integration who wants to turn their deep photonics, nanofabrication, metrology, and manufacturing expertise into scalable products with real-world impact.

At Neural Optix you will own the design, implementation, and execution of the foundry enablement workflows serving as the interface among design metrology and foundry teams. You will build and manage the technical relationships that turn Neural Optix platforms into partner‑ready solutions. You will work directly with leading brands, foundries, and ecosystem partners to customize technologies, define manufacturing specifications, improve process capability, and accelerate product adoption.

As a deep technologist, you will also drive core innovation by extending our platforms and applying nanofabrication expertise to create novel devices and optical structures.

This role requires a blend of exceptional strategic vision, deep technology and manufacturing acumen, and relationship management skills. The role requires a fundamental understanding of materials, process flows, and metrology techniques for display wave guides, next generation AR/VR/MR systems, and/or advanced photonic systems. This role will leverage your expertise in design-technology-co-optimization methods to drive component technology performance, and your communication skills to maintain an efficient, constructive interface between Foundry, Metrology, and Design teams.

The right person will help shape Neural Optix’s technical direction, partner strategy, product roadmap, and operating culture as the company moves from early platform development toward scalable deployment.

• Lead technical engagement with foundry, manufacturing, and ecosystem partners.
• Assess partner manufacturing capabilities through process flow and tooling reviews and identify opportunities for improvement.
• Design and implement end-to-end design-for-manufacturing (DFM) workflows.
• Develop scalable manufacturing specification frameworks and qualification methodologies.
• Drive design-technology co-optimization (DTCO) efforts to improve performance, yield, and manufacturability.
• Establish processes that enable successful technology transfer from development through production.

• Develop innovative devices, architectures, and optical structures.
• Apply expertise in nanofabrication, materials, and metrology to solve complex manufacturing challenges.
• Evaluate device performance, analyze experimental results, and recommend technical improvements.
• Work closely with design, materials, process, and manufacturing teams to achieve product performance and scalability objectives.
• Collaborate with partners to optimize tool configurations and process performance.

• Contribute technical expertise to software platforms
• Define requirements for manufacturing data infrastructure and analysis workflows.
• Support development of analytics and visualization capabilities that improve engineering decision‑making.
• Incorporate learning into platform capabilities and product strategy.

• Serve as the primary technical interface across design, metrology, and foundry organizations.
• Lead recurring cross‑functional technical reviews and partner working sessions.
• Align stakeholders around technical priorities, deliverables, and timelines.
• Build trusted relationships with customers, suppliers, and strategic partners.
• Maintain compliance with all confidentiality, security, and partner requirements.

• Bachelor’s degree in science or engineering field (with 10+ years of experience) in an advanced technology development and manufacturing environment.
• Fundamental understanding of photonic devices and the associated materials processes and metrology required
• Strong proficiency in materials, nanofabrication flows
• Strong proficiency in design-for-manufacturing.
• At least 4 years of experience working in development, manufacturing, or DFM technical leadership position.
• Ability to clearly document and communicate strategic and tactical plans.
• Ability to…