Founder associate (internship)

About Us:

We are building the photonic PCB, the missing piece of technology that takes integrated photonics to scale. After a decade of research into using light to manipulate information at the micrometer scale, we found that optical integration was the main bottleneck for building high-performance optical chips. So we set out to solve it. Our 3D optical interconnect solutions connect individual photonic components into functional systems, and that work sits underneath the next wave of progress in AI, computing, sensing, and telecommunications. We think optical integration is one of the most important problems in photonics right now, and we are building the foundation that decades of future innovation can rest on.

Position Overview:

We are looking for a Founder Associate to support our deeptech startup at its earliest stage. New problems arise every day and need to be solved fast to achieve our goals. At the same time, we need to build processes to run operations efficiently and at scale. You will work hand-in-hand with the CEO to tackle these challenges and ensure best-in-class startup execution.

Tasks

Responsibilities typically include the following scope and usually start by running a process, then building for the future:

• Setup processes for day-to-day operations

• Sales, lead generation

• Pre-sales, technical use case exploration

• Budget & grants management

• HR & admin

• Automate these processes to the maximum extent possible with relevant tools and AI agents.

• Coordinate and support hiring processes with the team

• Facilities and technical operations: help develop and monitor our office and technical (fabrication clean room, lab…) installations to high standards

• Market Intelligence: Monitor competitors, industry trends (e.g., photonics market reports), and customer feedback.

• Support investor relationship, reporting and funding strategy updates.

• Internal knowledge management — keeping SOPs, meeting notes, and decisions documented, maintaining a feedback log.

• Communication & content support — LinkedIn posts, newsletters, or partnership outreach.

Requirements

You are drawn to entrepreneurship; you want to learn hands-on what fast-paced execution means. You should apply if:

• You like to solve problems across a wide range of topics.
• You don’t like to do the same thing twice.
• You like building for the future.
• Full professional proficiency in English. French is optional.

Benefits

• Direct access to founder decision-making (rare at this stage)
• Broad exposure to an early-stage deeptech startup operations.
• Working across a unique technical environment (clean room, lab, industrial)
• Competitive internship compensation
• Opportunity to continue working for Lightspring in an operations role.

Application Process:

1. Reach out to the team!
2. Fit call with the CEO (30min)
3. Meet the team (30min)
4. Ref calls / proposal