Senior Optomechanical Engineer
$120,000–$210,000 year
On-siteLos Angeles, California, United States
Job Summary
Design optomechanical assemblies, including optical benches, mirror mounts, and lens cells, from conceptual design through qualification to on-orbit operations. Own mounting and alignment of lenses and mirrors by selecting kinematic mounts, flexures, and bonded interfaces that constrain optics without over-constraining them. Design mirror support structures addressing jitter, dynamic stability, mounting-induced deformation, and thermal stability via CTE matching and athermalization. Lead design reviews from kickoff through qualification and drive hardware development including hands-on assembly, alignment, vibration, and thermal-vac testing. Perform hardware trades to steer sub-system and top-level product direction while collaborating with cross-functional teams to establish best practices. Define requirements, create concepts, and produce development hardware within the first six months, validating designs through prototype iterations and building flight hardware within the first year. Fly hardware in space while supporting production and integration through 2026 and 2027.
Required Qualifications
- Bachelor's degree in mechanical, aerospace, optical, or other relevant engineering discipline
- 5+ years of experience in mechanical or optomechanical design and analysis, with a mechanics-heavy background
- Proficiency with 3D CAD software for detailed part and assembly design
- Hands-on experience mounting optics (lenses and mirrors) and designing the structures that support them
- Must be a 'U.S. person' as defined by 22 C.F.R. § 120.15 or otherwise eligible for a federally issued export control license
Desired Qualifications
- Proficiency with Siemens NX CAD
- Familiarity with STOP (Structural-Thermal-Optical Performance) analysis and closing pointing/wavefront error budgets across mechanical, thermal, and optical domains
- Experience designing, building, and testing precision optomechanical or opto-structural hardware for aerospace applications (satellite payloads, telescopes, imagers, or optical instruments)
- Experience with flexure design, optical bonding, and kinematic mount design for space environments
- Demonstrated ability to own optomechanical hardware or systems within an integrated engineering team outside a classroom setting
- Demonstrated understanding of structural analysis and failure modes of complex mechanical systems in space environments and operations
- Demonstrated experience designing structures for optical stability, accounting for jitter, mounting deformation, and thermal effects
- Experience with FEA for structural, modal, and thermal-elastic analysis
- Experience with the practical application of GD&T, including tolerancing of precision optical interfaces
- Demonstrated proficiency in the principles of mechanical design, materials, and structural dynamics
- Demonstrated ability to personally design, build, align, and test hardware from a blank canvas, including troubleshooting and iterating designs based on downstream feedback
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