VP R&D

About Lidwave

Lidwave is a Jerusalem-based deep-tech startup building the sensing layer for Physical AI. We develop the world’s first and only 4D coherent LiDAR-on-a-chip, using our proprietary FCR™ technology on a Silicon Photonics platform - giving machines the ability to perceive the world in four dimensions at chip scale. Our Odem™ product family targets automotive, security, and industrial markets. We’re building the next generation of machine perception.

The Role

We are hiring a VP R&D to own and scale Lidwave’s engineering effort as it moves toward mass production. You own the product as a single system - physics, optics, electronics, signal processing, mechanics, and software - and you carry it through NPI to a reliable product at scale. This means deep systems mastery paired with disciplined execution: a tightly organized team, rigorous schedules, the right tools, and detailed plans you bring to the company’s management. You will establish that delivery discipline and build out the engineering functions the product still needs. You also treat modern AI tools as core engineering infrastructure - using them yourself and driving their adoption across the team to compress development cycles without trading away rigor.

What You Will Own

• Systems ownership own the product as one system, from the physics through optics, electronics, signal processing, mechanics, and software, into a manufacturable sensor.
• Delivery and NPI take the product from design maturity through NPI to mass production, with repeatable build, calibration, and test, and aligned to customer requirements.
• Team leadership and planning organize the team, set rigorous schedules and tooling, manage each member precisely, and reflect it all in detailed plans for the CEO and management.
• Reliability and qualification own product reliability and run the qualification processes for the target domains.
• AI as a force multiplier make AI tools a standard part of how the team works, across code, design, simulation, test, and documentation, and build the practices and tooling that turn them into measurable gains in velocity and quality.

Requirements

• 10+ years in hardware engineering, with a proven record taking complex, multi-domain hardware and software products beyond serial production to mass production.
• Hands-on, player-coach leader. Organizes the team, builds rigorous schedules, applies disciplined tooling and precise per-member management, and reflects it in detailed plans to management.
• Deep systems understanding across the full stack: physics, optics, electronics, signal processing, mechanics, and software, with ownership of product reliability. Not a manager at arm’s length from the physics, hardware, or software.
• Built and scaled multidisciplinary engineering teams, with senior leads reporting to you.
• Experience delivering to demanding industrial customers, with the quality and reliability discipline that implies.
• Experience deploying AI tooling - coding assistants, ML-based design or simulation, automated test generation - in a hardware or systems R&D environment.

Advantageous

• Background in coherent optical systems, LiDAR, photonic integrated circuits, or optoelectronic systems.
• Familiarity with formal product qualification and certification processes.

Location: Har Hotzvim, Jerusalem