---
title: 'Director, Laser Technology at Diamond Foundry'
canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/director-laser-technology-diamond-foundry-bay-area-qy6zks0shnrc'
type: 'job'
last_seen: '2026-09-15'
---

# Director, Laser Technology at Diamond Foundry

- **Company:** Diamond Foundry
- **Location:** Bay Area, CA
- **Compensation:** $195k–$270k
- **Employment:** full-time
- **Work type:** onsite
- **Posted:** 2026-08-29
- **Last confirmed live:** 2026-09-15
- **Apply:** https://jobs.lever.co/diamondfoundry/d01d0ab6-2efc-482b-9dcd-dbb868cd1a97

## Job description

We are seeking an experienced, seasoned leader of Laser Technology to lead our laser process development and advanced optics team. In this role, you will own the end-to-end lifecycle of our high-power laser technology —from initial optical physics R&D and beam delivery modeling to scaling laser-material processing loops on the manufacturing floor. You will manage a team of laser engineers, optical physicists, and process specialists driving breakthrough yields in precision material processing.

## Key Responsibilities

- Own the technical roadmap for high-power laser systems, beam shaping optics, and ultrafast laser slicing for diamond wafers.

- Lead and scale a high-performing team of photonics engineers, optical physicists, and laser process specialists.

- Drive the scaling and transfer of laser-material processing recipes (dicing, singulation, surface ablation) from R&D to the factory floor.

- Partner with Equipment Engineering to design, procure, and integrate high-precision optical delivery hardware and galvo systems.

- Maximize diamond wafer yield by resolving complex laser-material interaction excursions, thermal lens effects, and beam drift

- Collaborate with Metrology and Automation teams to implement real-time optical sensor grids and closed-loop process controls.

## Qualifications & Experience

- Master’s or Ph.D. in Optics, Photonics, Physics, Electrical Engineering, or Materials Science.

- 8+ years in laser systems engineering, with 5+ years managing technical optical/process engineering teams.

- Deep technical expertise in high-power industrial lasers (fiber, DPSS, ultrafast/femtosecond), beam delivery optics, and galvo scanners.

- Proven track record in precision laser-material processing loops (e.g., semiconductor wafer slicing, ceramic/hard-material dicing, or optical annealing).

- Proficiency with optical simulation tools (Zemax, Code V) and multiphysics modeling platforms (COMSOL, MATLAB, Python).

- Strong background in Statistical Process Control (SPC), Design of Experiments (DOE), and Root Cause Analysis (RCA).

## About Diamond Foundry

## Company Overview
- **One-liner**: Diamond Foundry creates single-crystal diamond wafers and diamond-based semiconductors to solve the thermal limitations at the core of AI, electric vehicles, and wireless communications.
- **Entity Type**: Private (Series B, multiple debt rounds)
- **Headquarters**: San Francisco, California, USA
- **Founded**: 2013
- **Founders**: Engineers from Stanford, MIT, and Princeton (founded in 2012, incorporated 2013)

## Core Business
- Primary industry: Semiconductor Manufacturing / Advanced Materials
- Target customers: B2B, primarily enterprise partners in AI/cloud compute, electric vehicles, and 5G/6G wireless (chip makers, data center operators, automotive OEMs)
- Mission or purpose: To put diamond behind every chip and eventually deliver diamond semiconductors with 17,200x the semiconductor merit of silicon.

## Products & Services
- **[Diamond Wafer]**: Single-crystal diamond wafers designed to be placed behind high-power chips to solve thermal management. Claims 8x smaller power electronics than Tesla’s.
- **[AI & Cloud Compute]**: Diamond-powered AI datacenter solutions, leveraging diamond’s extreme thermal conductivity to enable faster, denser compute.
- **[Consumer Jewelry (VRAI)]**: Sustainably created diamond jewelry, serving as the company’s consumer-facing brand and proof of its diamond-growing capability.
- **[Electric Car Components]**: Diamond-based power electronics for electric vehicles, improving efficiency and reducing size.

## Market Standing
- **Valuation**: Not disclosed (was a unicorn as of Series B). Revenue of $350M (annual) indicates strong growth.
- **Key Metric**: Annual Revenue: $350M (as of most recent data). Total Funding: ~$523M+ across multiple rounds (Series A, B, venture, debt).
- **Notable Investors**: Not explicitly listed in provided data, but funding history includes multiple institutional investors.
- **Growth Signals**: 5 years profitable; >90% global market share for large diamond wafers; headcount up 23.5% YoY (to 259 employees); active job postings up 54.2% YoY; building the largest solar + battery farm in Europe to power its Spain foundry.

## Competitive Advantages
- **Vertically integrated manufacturing**: Designs and builds its own reactor technology and runs all operations in-house, enabling rapid scaling and cost control.
- **First-mover in diamond wafers**: Claims >90% global market share for large single-crystal diamond wafers.
- **Extreme material advantage**: Diamond has 17,200x the semiconductor merit of silicon, offering a massive physics-based moat.
- **Green manufacturing**: Crystallizes greenhouse gas into diamond using zero-emission energy; byproducts are oxygen and water.
- **Profitability**: Rare for a hardware unicorn; has been profitable for 5 years.

## Strategic Focus
- **Near-term (2023+)**: Place a diamond behind every high-power chip, solving the thermal bottleneck for AI, EVs, and 5G/6G.
- **Mid-term (2033+)**: Deliver diamond semiconductors (transistors) that outperform silicon by orders of magnitude.
- **Operational**: Scaling production capacity in the US (Wenatchee, WA) and Spain (Trujillo), including building a massive solar+battery farm.
- **R&D**: Advancing heteroepitaxy and bonding processes in labs in the US and Germany.

## Why Work Here
- **Culture**: Described as “focused on creators and creating,” with small teams of hands-on contributors, little hierarchy, and low overhead. High performers can build sizable equity ownership.
- **Work Policy**: Roles are predominantly on-site (Wenatchee, WA; Trujillo, Spain; SF Bay Area, CA; Augsburg, Germany; Dubai, UAE). No fully remote jobs currently posted.
- **Notable Perks**: Work on the “universe’s most extreme material” at the intersection of AI, EVs, and advanced manufacturing. Global opportunities across 9 countries.
- **Engineering Culture**: Deep tech, R&D-heavy environment with a 30-year master plan. Emphasis on innovation and building the future of semiconductors.
- **Diversity**: Global group with operations in the US, Spain, UAE, Germany, Taiwan, and more.

## Sources
1. [df.com/about-us](https://www.df.com/about-us)
2. [df.com/working-at-df](https://www.df.com/working-at-df)
3. [careers.df.com](https://careers.df.com/)
4. [jobs.lever.co/diamondfoundry](https://jobs.lever.co/diamondfoundry)
5. [linkedin.com/company/diamond-foundry](https://www.linkedin.com/company/diamond-foundry)

## Other roles at Diamond Foundry

- [Environmental Health & Safety (EHS) Generalist](https://feeny.ai/job/environmental-health-safety-ehs-generalist-diamond-foundry-bay-area-qjsw3cvvwsb3) — Bay Area, CA
- [Mechanical Engineer, Systems & Automation](https://feeny.ai/job/mechanical-engineer-systems-automation-diamond-foundry-zaragoza-azqn7d2c9s31) — Zaragoza, Spain
- [Diamond Sales Expert - Chicago](https://feeny.ai/job/diamond-sales-expert-chicago-diamond-foundry-chicago-kc6b0sxtgg3g) — Chicago, IL
- [Equipment Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/equipment-engineer-diamond-foundry-trujillo-q7synbm9r42q) — Trujillo, Spain
- [Técnico de Producción](https://feeny.ai/job/tecnico-de-produccion-diamond-foundry-zaragoza-9rzgb9b4s74n) — Zaragoza, Spain
- [Conductor de Empresa y Asistente de Operaciones](https://feeny.ai/job/conductor-de-empresa-y-asistente-de-operaciones-diamond-foundry-trujillo-hh2js80axxrm) — Trujillo, Spain
- [Part-Time Diamond Sales Expert - San Francisco](https://feeny.ai/job/part-time-diamond-sales-expert-san-francisco-diamond-foundry-chicago-k1kkrfhhmj8n) — Chicago, IL
- [Marketing Director](https://feeny.ai/job/marketing-director-diamond-foundry-new-york-dhd19r3dnthc) — New York, NY
- [Principal Equipment Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/principal-equipment-engineer-diamond-foundry-bay-area-fftgnb53p3y7) — Bay Area, CA
- [Operational Excellence Specialist](https://feeny.ai/job/operational-excellence-specialist-diamond-foundry-wenatchee-8ktstsg5f6dh) — Wenatchee, WA