Optical Design Engineer

What You ll Do

• Develop, analyze, and document optical architectures and detailed designs supporting space-based power beaming and other advanced optical applications.
• Build, maintain, and validate optical models using tools such as Zemax Optic Studio, Code V, FRED, ASAP, or equivalent.
• Perform optical architecture trades involving aperture, beam quality, efficiency, packaging, manufacturability, alignment sensitivity, thermal stability, and system-level performance.
• Develop and maintain optical performance budgets, including wavefront error, beam quality, transmission, pointing sensitivity, diffraction, scattering, and other mission-relevant performance metrics.
• Perform optical tolerancing, sensitivity analysis, alignment analysis, and optical error budgeting for components, assemblies, and system-level interfaces.
• Translate mission and system requirements into optical requirements, budgets, assumptions, interfaces, and verification approaches.
• Support optomechanical design maturation by defining optical surface specifications, coatings, materials, alignment datums, interfaces, inspection criteria, and optical performance requirements.
• Collaborate with mechanical engineers on optical mounts, interfaces, precision assemblies, mechanisms, and released engineering drawings.
• Perform or support STOP, thermo-optical, structural-optical, stray light, scattering, and ghost analyses.
• Evaluate the effects of thermal gradients, structural deformation, contamination, vibration, alignment errors, and other environmental conditions on optical performance.
• Work with thermal and structural engineers to incorporate analysis results into optical models and predict system performance across operational and environmental conditions.
• Develop optical error budgets and allocate performance requirements across optical, mechanical, thermal, controls, and manufacturing contributors.
• Support optical alignment planning, including alignment tolerances, datums, metrology requirements, adjustment strategies, and verification methods.
• Support optical fabrication, inspection, assembly, integration, and test activities.
• Review optical fabrication and inspection documentation, including surface figure, surface quality, coatings, materials, dimensional tolerances, and optical performance requirements.
• Develop and maintain technical documentation, including optical design reports, trade studies, analysis reports, interface control documents, requirements, performance budgets, and verification plans.
• Present optical performance, design trades, analysis results, technical risks, and recommended mitigations during internal design reviews and technical discussions.
• Participate in design reviews, hardware reviews, manufacturing reviews, integration activities, and environmental test campaigns.
• Identify opportunities to improve optical performance, reduce system complexity, decrease mass and cost, improve manufacturability, and increase reliability.
• Collaborate with manufacturing partners, optical fabricators, coating vendors, and specialty suppliers to resolve technical issues and ensure successful hardware development.
• Contribute to the development of optical engineering standards, design practices, analysis methodologies, and technical best practices.

• Develop, analyze, and document optical architectures and detailed designs supporting space-based power beaming and other advanced optical applications.
• Build, maintain, and validate optical models using tools such as Zemax Optic Studio, Code V, FRED, ASAP, or equivalent.
• Perform optical architecture trades involving aperture, beam quality, efficiency, packaging, manufacturability, alignment sensitivity, thermal stability, and system-level performance.
• Develop and maintain optical performance budgets, including wavefront error, beam quality, transmission, pointing sensitivity, diffraction, scattering, and other mission-relevant performance metrics.
• Perform optical tolerancing, sensitivity analysis, alignment analysis, and optical error budgeting for components, assemblies, and system-level interfaces.
• Translate mission and system requirements into optical requirements, budgets, assumptions, interfaces, and verification approaches.
• Support optomechanical design maturation by defining optical surface specifications, coatings, materials, alignment datums, interfaces, inspection criteria, and optical performance requirements.
• Collaborate with mechanical engineers on optical mounts, interfaces, precision assemblies, mechanisms, and released engineering drawings.
• Perform or support STOP, thermo-optical, structural-optical, stray light, scattering, and ghost analyses.
• Evaluate the effects of thermal gradients, structural deformation, contamination, vibration, alignment errors, and other environmental conditions on optical performance.
• Work with thermal and structural engineers to incorporate analysis results into optical models and predict system performance across operational and environmental conditions.
• Develop optical…