Neurophos quadruples workforce, plans another doubling by year-end

Neurophos has quadrupled its workforce in 2026 and expects to double it again by year-end, pairing hiring in Austin and Sunnyvale with plans to open a low-rate initial production facility in Austin later this year as it prepares to commercialize photonic AI chips, the company said Sept. 10.

The expansion follows a $110 million Series A funding round announced in January. Neurophos has opened a Sunnyvale, California, office, moved into a larger Austin headquarters and retained its existing laboratory and prototyping facilities. It is actively hiring across engineering disciplines in Sunnyvale and Austin.

The technical hires show how widely Neurophos is looking for optics and hardware talent. Kristina Uhlendorf joined as technical fellow for optics from Magic Leap, where she led advanced optics development for more than five years. Josh Isaacs, the new director of optics, previously led optical engineering at Eikon Therapeutics for four years. Chris Pan, appointed director of board design, brings hardware engineering leadership experience at Intel, HP, Qualcomm, Huawei and Juniper, followed by a decade building radar, lidar and autonomy startups.

At the executive level, Neurophos appointed Nathan Kundtz chief technology officer. He founded metamaterials-based satellite communications company Kymeta and led it from concept to global deployment. Michael Shebanow was promoted to senior vice president of engineering, while CFO Preston Woo added the chief commercialization officer role, reflecting his work on commercial engagements and partnerships.

Neurophos also hired Kevin Keller as general counsel, adding experience from Micron, Microsoft, Amazon Lab 126 and Meta.