Company details

HEADCOUNT

25-99

ORG TYPE

Startup

SECTOR

Technology & Digital

WEBSITE

https://www.lumai.ai

About the company

Lumai is an Oxford-based AI hardware startup building an optical AI accelerator for data centres, using 3D optical computing to push performance while cutting power and cost. The company positions the technology as an alternative to transistor-only accelerators and photonic approaches, aimed at scaling frontier AI more efficiently. In April 2025, Lumai publicly announced raising more than $10M to accelerate product development and grow the team. Lumai also presents as an Oxford University spinout with a research-heavy founding story.

Locations and presence

Lumai is headquartered in Oxford with on-site technical hiring there. The company also signals a North America go-to-market push via a remote Business Development Lead role based around the San Francisco Bay Area.

Palpable Score

41.4

/ 100

Lumai has one plausible entry point via an Electronics Lab Technician vacancy, but the overall hiring surface is very small and not set up as a repeatable early-career pipeline. For graduates, the biggest gaps are missing interview-stage transparency, missing pay ranges, and almost no public evidence on progression or early-career outcomes.

Pillar 1: Early-career access

Score

6.0

/ 20

The company lists an Electronics Lab Technician role in Oxford, which is the only clearly junior-accessible vacancy on the public careers page.
Lumai’s second listed vacancy is a Business Development Lead for North America, which reads as an experienced hire and does not widen graduate access.
The company does not show internships, apprenticeships, “Junior/Associate” titles, or multiple 0–3 year roles at the same time, so entry-level access looks occasional.

Pillar 2: Hiring fairness and transparency

Score

11.0

/ 20

The company routes applications through a central careers portal (HiBob) rather than ad-hoc email hiring, which is a baseline fairness signal.
Lumai labels roles clearly with location and work mode (Oxford on-site, SF Bay Area remote), reducing late-stage surprises about where the job happens.
The company does not publish interview stages, assessment expectations, or timelines on the careers page, and the role detail pages are not publicly readable without the portal.

Pillar 3: Learning and support

Score

10.0

/ 20

The company frames “opportunities for growth and innovation” on the careers page, but that is not tied to specific onboarding or mentoring actions.
Lumai’s technical entry point is a lab-based role, which typically creates day-to-day learning through prototyping and test work alongside engineers, but Lumai does not publish the support setup in the official listing.
The company does not publish manager cadence, pairing, shadowing, or a 30-60-90 day ramp, which makes learning support hard to validate before applying.

Pillar 4: Pay fairness and stability

Score

8.7

/ 20

The company does not publish salary ranges or equity detail on the public careers page, so early-career pay fairness is hard to benchmark.
Lumai has publicly announced significant funding, which supports runway, but the company does not translate that into concrete compensation transparency for candidates.
The company does not list benefits (healthcare, pension, leave policies) on the careers page, which caps confidence on stability for juniors.

Pillar 5: Early-career outcomes

Score

5.7

/ 20

The company has no clearly attributable public employee review footprint under Lumai that can be used to validate manager quality or early-career experience.
Lumai is still early in company age and team size, and the public footprint does not show early-career promotion stories or intern-to-full-time outcomes.
The company does not publish early-career outcome proof such as progression examples, retention signals, or alumni paths, which keeps this score low.