CTO - AI-native optical design platform (Paraxial)

Paraxial — Seattle, WA (Hybrid or Remote for exceptional candidates)

Paraxial is building the first AI-native optical design platform, a modern successor to legacy tools like Zemax and Code V. Optical systems drive AR/VR, LiDAR, robotics, aerospace, and biomedical imaging — yet the tools used to design them are outdated, slow, and fundamentally incompatible with modern compute and AI.

We’re rebuilding the stack from first principles:
natural-language spec-to-model, high-performance ray tracing, intelligent design exploration, hybrid AI tolerancing, and CAD-native integration.

With hundreds of optical engineers already on the waitlist and enterprise design partners ready to begin pilots, we’re hiring a CTO to architect and ship the beginning of the platform.

This is a hands-on technical leadership role.
You will build the first working iteration of Paraxial, make the architectural decisions that define its long-term future, and grow the engineering organization around your technical vision.

• The end-to-end architecture of Paraxial’s early product
  
• Technical decisions across backend, orchestration, data modeling, optimization workflows, and early simulation integration
  
• Rapid prototyping of core workflows (spec → model → optimization → results)
  
• Interfaces to external engines (ZOS-API or alternatives) and, eventually, modernized high-performance cores
  
• Early LLM integration workflows
  
• Development of reproducibility, logging, and correctness foundations
  
• Engineering culture, documentation, and hiring the first technical team
  
• Long-term decisions on HPC, GPU, ML, and CAD infrastructure — selecting the right tools for the job rather than adhering to a specific stack
  

You are responsible for building the “spine” of Paraxial: the architecture, systems, and workflows the entire company will build on.

You are a senior/principal-level engineer with deep experience building zero-to-one products in technically complex domains. You have strong command over:

• System design across backend, compute, and data layers
  
• Building and shipping simulation-heavy or data-intensive workflows
  
• Working with performance-sensitive code, whether in C++, Python, or another modern language
  
• Choosing and integrating the right technology (C++, Python, CUDA, GPU libraries, ML frameworks, rendering engines, etc.) based on constraints
  
• Architecting pipelines that involve optimization, numerical analysis, or scientific computation
  
• Writing pragmatic, reliable code while moving quickly
  

You’re not tied to one language or stack — you choose the right tool for the job.

• Ability to independently deliver a working product slice in weeks, not quarters
  
• Strong intuition for glueing together APIs, LLMs, numerical code, and UI
  
• Clear communication with non-software domain experts
  
• Bias toward shipping, learning, and iterating
  
• Comfort owning ambiguous, open-ended problem spaces
  

Not required, but very valuable:

• Experience with simulation, rendering, robotics, AV, computational physics, or optimization
  
• Exposure to ray tracing, geometric optics, or optical system design
  
• Experience working in AR/VR, imaging, or any hardware-adjacent industry
  

We do not expect deep optical expertise — but curiosity and ability to collaborate closely with optical engineers is essential.

In the first 30–60 days, you will work closely with the CEO and our optical domain expert to:

• Stand up core backend services and data models
  
• Build the initial Parametric Optical Model (POM) schema
  
• Implement a pipeline that turns a spec (form or natural language) into an optimized optical system
  
• Integrate with existing engines (ZOS-API or similar) for design generation and analysis
  
• Build a simple but functional UI for entering specs and reviewing candidate designs
  
• Create the first LLM-driven spec mapper for natural-language input
  
• Ensure correctness by working closely with optical domain knowledge
  

You’ll write code every day while also making foundational decisions about system design, performance characteristics, toolchain choices, and long-term architecture.

• Build the foundational technical architecture of a next-generation engineering platform
  
• Work at the intersection of physics, AI, simulation, and human creativity
  
• Direct exposure to real optical engineers shaping the future of hardware
  
• The opportunity to reinvent an entire industry’s core tools