Hardware Engineer Jobs in USA with Visa Sponsorship
Hardware engineers designing processors, circuit boards, and embedded systems have strong H-1B visa sponsorship prospects due to STEM classification and specialty occupation requirements. Major tech companies and semiconductor firms regularly sponsor hardware roles, with Australian engineers also eligible for the E-3 visa pathway. For detailed occupation requirements, see the O*NET profile.
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Get Access To All JobsINTRODUCTION
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!
ROLE AND RESPONSIBILITIES
We are hiring a Sr Technical Program Manager (TPM) to drive program execution across Lightmatter's Hardware Systems team. You will drive schedules, resource planning, priorities, and cross-functional alignment for all projects and activities within the team - spanning electrical, mechanical, and system engineering. You will work closely with internal teams such as SI, PI, SW, supply chain, and with external partners, including contract manufacturers, PCB and sheet metal fabricators, assembly houses, and other suppliers, to keep programs on track from early design through production.
In this role, you will manage dependencies and trade-offs across concurrent workstreams, facilitate alignment across internal and external stakeholders, and maintain program visibility for engineering leadership. Your scope covers the full hardware development lifecycle, from design through production, including the engineering support programs, test infrastructure, and tooling that keep the broader team moving. You will also serve as the team's primary program interface to broader organizational programs, ensuring that schedule changes, material commitments, and engineering status are communicated accurately and on time to cross-functional program stakeholders.
This is a hands-on role that combines strong program management fundamentals with a working knowledge of hardware engineering. You will be equally at home in a design review, a supplier call, a resource planning discussion, and an executive status update. You will also need to thrive in a fast-moving environment where requirements evolve, priorities shift, and not every process is fully established, and bring the clarity and structure that turns that ambiguity into forward progress.
Responsibilities
- Own program coordination across all HW Systems activities: maintain an integrated schedule across all concurrent projects and workstreams, surface priority conflicts, and drive resolution of resource contention with engineering leads.
- Drive cross-functional alignment between HW Systems and other teams: setting agendas, facilitating meetings, capturing decisions, communicating delays and risks, and relentlessly following up on action items.
- Manage team-wide resource loading and capacity visibility, partnering with engineering leads to flag overallocation risks and drive trade-offs discussions across concurrent programs.
- Build and maintain integrated program schedules that reflect hardware development realities - bring-up milestones, NPI phases, EVT/DVT/PVT gates, and cross-team dependencies.
- Own program scope that lives outside formal project charters: tester boards, demos, lab fixtures, calibration equipment, and internal engineering tools that teams depend on but that would otherwise lack dedicated ownership.
- Coordinate material flow within the HW Systems team: track component orders, PCB fab runs, PCBA and mechanical assemblies, and engineering samples; partner with supply chain to ensure critical materials land on schedule.
- Track and coordinate cross-functional teams' HW deliverable dependencies including quantities and timelines, and ensure downstream teams are unblocked with accurate, up-to-date visibility into HW schedule and status.
- Serve as the primary hardware program interface with external contract manufacturers, PCB and sheet metal fabricators, and assembly houses: managing schedules, tracking deliverables, facilitating technical alignment, and driving closure on open issues in partnership with Supply chain.
- Represent the HW Systems team in company-wide program reviews and cross-functional planning cadences; own the team's program interface to broader organizational stakeholders, communicating schedule changes, material needs, and engineering commitments proactively and clearly.
- Track HW Systems budgets for engineering activities, prototype builds, and tooling; coordinate with finance and operations to ensure spend is planned, visible, and aligned with program milestones.
- Adapt quickly to change: replan and realign when scope shifts, schedules move, or engineering realities force a pivot; maintain momentum and clarity even when the path forward is not fully defined.
- Establish and maintain lightweight program management processes: status reporting cadences, risk registers, dependency tracking, and decision logs.
BASIC QUALIFICATIONS
- Bachelor's degree in Engineering or a related technical field.
- 5+ years of program management experience in hardware engineering, with direct exposure to electrical and mechanical development cycles.
- Proven track record managing concurrent engineering programs with shared resources and overlapping timelines.
- Deep familiarity with hardware development processes and terminology across the full lifecycle—including PCBA and mechanical enclosures, PCB fabrication, system integration, bring-up, EVT/DVT/PVT, and production—enabling clear communication with engineers and vendors.
- Proven experience coordinating with contract manufacturers (CMs) and ODMs to manage schedules, track deliverables, and resolve open issues.
- Hands-on experience with material flow, component tracking, and BOM management.
- Skilled facilitator who drives productive meetings, captures critical context, and ensures action items are owned and closed.
- Strong written and verbal communicator, comfortable presenting program status and risk assessments to engineering leads and executives.
- Expert in project management tools such as Microsoft Project, Jira, Smartsheet, or equivalent platforms.
- Strong bias for action—consistently closes loops, follows up independently, and identifies potential slips before they impact project timelines.
- Thrives in fast-paced, ambiguous environments; proactively creates structure and drives clarity without waiting for complete information.
PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS
- Experience managing programs for complex hardware development.
- Experience defining and improving program management processes in a startup or new business unit.
This role is open to two different levels.
Staff: $189,000 - $210,000
Sr Staff: $217,000 - $252,000
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.
INTRODUCTION
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!
ROLE AND RESPONSIBILITIES
We are hiring a Sr Technical Program Manager (TPM) to drive program execution across Lightmatter's Hardware Systems team. You will drive schedules, resource planning, priorities, and cross-functional alignment for all projects and activities within the team - spanning electrical, mechanical, and system engineering. You will work closely with internal teams such as SI, PI, SW, supply chain, and with external partners, including contract manufacturers, PCB and sheet metal fabricators, assembly houses, and other suppliers, to keep programs on track from early design through production.
In this role, you will manage dependencies and trade-offs across concurrent workstreams, facilitate alignment across internal and external stakeholders, and maintain program visibility for engineering leadership. Your scope covers the full hardware development lifecycle, from design through production, including the engineering support programs, test infrastructure, and tooling that keep the broader team moving. You will also serve as the team's primary program interface to broader organizational programs, ensuring that schedule changes, material commitments, and engineering status are communicated accurately and on time to cross-functional program stakeholders.
This is a hands-on role that combines strong program management fundamentals with a working knowledge of hardware engineering. You will be equally at home in a design review, a supplier call, a resource planning discussion, and an executive status update. You will also need to thrive in a fast-moving environment where requirements evolve, priorities shift, and not every process is fully established, and bring the clarity and structure that turns that ambiguity into forward progress.
Responsibilities
- Own program coordination across all HW Systems activities: maintain an integrated schedule across all concurrent projects and workstreams, surface priority conflicts, and drive resolution of resource contention with engineering leads.
- Drive cross-functional alignment between HW Systems and other teams: setting agendas, facilitating meetings, capturing decisions, communicating delays and risks, and relentlessly following up on action items.
- Manage team-wide resource loading and capacity visibility, partnering with engineering leads to flag overallocation risks and drive trade-offs discussions across concurrent programs.
- Build and maintain integrated program schedules that reflect hardware development realities - bring-up milestones, NPI phases, EVT/DVT/PVT gates, and cross-team dependencies.
- Own program scope that lives outside formal project charters: tester boards, demos, lab fixtures, calibration equipment, and internal engineering tools that teams depend on but that would otherwise lack dedicated ownership.
- Coordinate material flow within the HW Systems team: track component orders, PCB fab runs, PCBA and mechanical assemblies, and engineering samples; partner with supply chain to ensure critical materials land on schedule.
- Track and coordinate cross-functional teams' HW deliverable dependencies including quantities and timelines, and ensure downstream teams are unblocked with accurate, up-to-date visibility into HW schedule and status.
- Serve as the primary hardware program interface with external contract manufacturers, PCB and sheet metal fabricators, and assembly houses: managing schedules, tracking deliverables, facilitating technical alignment, and driving closure on open issues in partnership with Supply chain.
- Represent the HW Systems team in company-wide program reviews and cross-functional planning cadences; own the team's program interface to broader organizational stakeholders, communicating schedule changes, material needs, and engineering commitments proactively and clearly.
- Track HW Systems budgets for engineering activities, prototype builds, and tooling; coordinate with finance and operations to ensure spend is planned, visible, and aligned with program milestones.
- Adapt quickly to change: replan and realign when scope shifts, schedules move, or engineering realities force a pivot; maintain momentum and clarity even when the path forward is not fully defined.
- Establish and maintain lightweight program management processes: status reporting cadences, risk registers, dependency tracking, and decision logs.
BASIC QUALIFICATIONS
- Bachelor's degree in Engineering or a related technical field.
- 5+ years of program management experience in hardware engineering, with direct exposure to electrical and mechanical development cycles.
- Proven track record managing concurrent engineering programs with shared resources and overlapping timelines.
- Deep familiarity with hardware development processes and terminology across the full lifecycle—including PCBA and mechanical enclosures, PCB fabrication, system integration, bring-up, EVT/DVT/PVT, and production—enabling clear communication with engineers and vendors.
- Proven experience coordinating with contract manufacturers (CMs) and ODMs to manage schedules, track deliverables, and resolve open issues.
- Hands-on experience with material flow, component tracking, and BOM management.
- Skilled facilitator who drives productive meetings, captures critical context, and ensures action items are owned and closed.
- Strong written and verbal communicator, comfortable presenting program status and risk assessments to engineering leads and executives.
- Expert in project management tools such as Microsoft Project, Jira, Smartsheet, or equivalent platforms.
- Strong bias for action—consistently closes loops, follows up independently, and identifies potential slips before they impact project timelines.
- Thrives in fast-paced, ambiguous environments; proactively creates structure and drives clarity without waiting for complete information.
PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS
- Experience managing programs for complex hardware development.
- Experience defining and improving program management processes in a startup or new business unit.
This role is open to two different levels.
Staff: $189,000 - $210,000
Sr Staff: $217,000 - $252,000
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.
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Get Access To All JobsTips for Finding Visa Sponsorship as a Hardware Engineer
Target semiconductor and tech hardware companies
Intel, AMD, NVIDIA, Apple, and Qualcomm frequently sponsor hardware engineers. These companies have established visa programs and understand the specialized nature of hardware development roles requiring engineering degrees.
Emphasize STEM degree relevance
Hardware engineering clearly qualifies as a specialty occupation requiring electrical, computer, or mechanical engineering degrees. Document how your specific coursework directly relates to circuit design, digital systems, or embedded programming.
Highlight specialized technical skills
Focus on advanced skills like FPGA programming, ASIC design, PCB layout, or system architecture. These specialized competencies strengthen the case that the role requires degree-level knowledge in engineering fields.
Research company H-1B filing history
Check DOL disclosure data to see which hardware companies have successfully sponsored engineers before. Companies with previous LCA filings for hardware roles demonstrate established sponsorship patterns and processes.
Consider defense contractors carefully
Defense companies hire hardware engineers but often require security clearances limited to U.S. citizens. Focus on commercial tech companies, startups, and semiconductor firms that don't have citizenship-based restrictions.
Position experience with emerging technologies
AI chips, IoT devices, autonomous vehicle hardware, and 5G infrastructure represent growing areas. Demonstrating experience with cutting-edge hardware technologies can make your sponsorship case more compelling to employers.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do hardware engineers qualify for H-1B sponsorship?
Yes, hardware engineers clearly qualify as a specialty occupation requiring an engineering degree. The role involves designing circuits, processors, and embedded systems that directly require electrical, computer, or mechanical engineering knowledge. USCIS typically approves hardware engineer H-1B visa petitions when the degree matches the technical requirements of the position.
How to find Hardware Engineer jobs with visa sponsorship?
To find Hardware Engineer jobs with visa sponsorship, use Migrate Mate, which specializes in connecting international candidates with sponsoring employers. Focus your search on tech companies, semiconductor manufacturers, and electronics firms that commonly hire hardware engineers on H-1B, TN visa, or O-1 visas. These companies often need specialized hardware design, circuit engineering, and product development expertise that requires visa sponsorship.
What degree do I need for hardware engineer visa sponsorship?
You need a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering, computer engineering, mechanical engineering, or closely related field. The degree must directly relate to hardware design, circuit analysis, or embedded systems. Three years of relevant work experience can substitute for one year of education under the 3-for-1 rule if your degree doesn't perfectly match.
Which companies sponsor hardware engineers most often?
Major semiconductor companies like Intel, AMD, NVIDIA, Qualcomm, and Broadcom regularly sponsor hardware engineers. Tech giants including Apple, Google, Microsoft, and Amazon also sponsor for hardware roles. Startups developing IoT devices, robotics, or specialized chips increasingly offer sponsorship as they compete for engineering talent.
Can hardware engineers get E-3 visas if they're Australian?
Yes, Australian hardware engineers can use the E-3 visa, which often provides faster processing than H-1B. The role clearly meets specialty occupation requirements, and you need the same engineering degree. E-3 has no annual cap and allows unlimited renewals, making it an excellent option for Australian hardware engineers.
What makes a hardware engineer H-1B petition stronger?
Strong petitions emphasize specialized skills like FPGA design, ASIC development, or system architecture that require advanced engineering knowledge. Include specific coursework from your degree program that directly relates to the job duties. Document any patents, publications, or complex projects that demonstrate the specialized nature of your hardware engineering expertise.
What is the prevailing wage requirement for sponsored Hardware Engineer jobs?
U.S. employers sponsoring a visa must pay at least the prevailing wage, which is what workers in the same role, area, and experience level typically earn. The Department of Labor sets this rate to make sure companies aren't hiring foreign workers simply because they'd accept lower pay than a U.S. worker. It varies by job title, location, and experience. You can look up current prevailing wage rates for any occupation and location using the OFLC Wage Search page.