About the role
At Lace Lithography, we’re scaling up our team and looking for a passionate and sharp talent to join us. We’re on a mission to do something really, really small. You’ll craft the masks that bring our patterns to life. In our company we build chip lithography technology that will enable the next 100 years of chip manufacturing. Founded in 2023, we’re based in Bergen (Norway) and Barcelona (Spain), and backed by some of the world’s most ambitious investors. Lace Lithography is seeking a highly experienced Senior Optimization Engineer to join our Mask Design team. In this high-impact role, you will architect and deploy the advanced nonlinear optimization engines that define the theoretical limits of our lithography systems. You will be responsible for defining how we solve high-dimensional, nonlinear problems, mentoring
the team on advanced numerical methods, and establishing the standards for optimization reliability. Working alongside physicists and developers, you will deliver high-performance solutions to critical manufacturing challenges. This role is based in Barcelona , and will involve regular travel between our two locations throughout the year. What you’ll do Advanced Algorithm Engineering: Design and engineer custom, large-scale nonlinear optimization algorithms. You will move beyond standard implementations to develop specialized heuristics and globalization strategies that exploit the specific structure of our problem. Complex Mathematical Formulation: Translate intricate multiphysics phenomena into rigorous, differentiable optimization problems, ensuring well-posedness and numerical stability for complex engineering objectives. Deep Solver Integration & Customization: Go beyond basic API interfacing to deeply customize solver behaviors. You will modify linear algebra backends, Hessian approximations, and callback structures to maximize solver performance. Code Implementation: Write highly optimized, modular, and testable scientific code in Julia, Python, or C++. GPU-Accelerated Optimization: Implement distributed and GPU-accelerated optimization routines. You will apply parallelization strategies (MPI, CUDA/Kernel abstractions) required to solve problems with millions of degrees of freedom in viable timeframes. Algorithmic Tuning & Profiling: Conduct deep-dive performance analysis on critical loops. You will profile memory access patterns and algorithmic complexity to eliminate bottlenecks and resolve numerical instabilities. Testing and Validation: Design comprehensive validation frameworks that stress-test optimization convergence and ensure robustness against real-world edge cases. Cross-Disciplinary Collaboration: Work closely with physics and hardware teams to ensure strong alignment between mathematical models and real-world systems. Technical Standards & Best Practices: Serve as a Subject Matter Expert (SME) on numerical optimization. You will elevate
