Senior Optical Engineer

Skyloom, an IonQ company, is a telecommunications company founded with the mission to develop, deploy, and operate one of the fundamental pieces of tomorrow's space communication infrastructure to provide data transport services on a planetary scale. If you have a strong sense of purpose, focus, urgency, and willingness to compete, or if working on space lasers excites you, join our team to develop the future generation of space communication technology.

Skyloom is building the orbital infrastructure for the next renaissance in global connectivity. As Earth’s first space-based telecommunications company, we deliver fiberless, planetary-scale data transport that dramatically increases bandwidth, availability, and resiliency—while reducing latency and total cost of operations.

Our proprietary optical technology enables secure, ultra-high-capacity connections across our end-to-end, multi-orbit network or within your own infrastructure, unlocking a new standard for global communications.

The Optical Engineer will possess expertise in optical systems, optical communication technologies, and the development of optical communication solutions, preferably for laser communications and optical inter-satellite links (OISLs). This position is a key role in designing, simulating, and optimizing optical systems for high-performance laser communication networks for space-based systems. This role interfaces closely with the production teams delivering a hardware design that is capable of cost-effective mass production.

• Design, develop, and optimize optical communication systems for space and ground-based applications.
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams to develop integrated communication solutions, focusing on system architecture, performance, and reliability.
• Design and specify optical metrology systems and key components, such as lenses, beam shapers, and light sources.
• Derive quantified requirements for optical metrology instruments using analytical techniques, numerical modeling, and bench‑top testing.
• Take the lead in customizing optical instrument vendors' offerings when necessary, ensuring that the instrument performance meets mass production requirements.
• Conduct hardware/software validation for optical metrology systems.
• Provide technical support for integration and troubleshooting of optical systems and develop root‑cause analysis for products exhibiting non‑conformances in the optics subsystem.
• Analyze large amounts of laboratory data for validation and improvement purposes.
• Provide clear and rigorous presentations and reports on the subjects listed above, effectively communicating with a broad range of cross‑functional teams.

• Bachelor's, Master's, or Ph.D. degree in Optical Engineering, Physics, Electrical Engineering or a related field, or equivalent experience.
• Proven experience in optical system design, modeling, and validation, with a minimum of 5‑8 years in a similar role.
• Knowledge in the development of space optical instruments, especially in the field of telescopes, spectrometers, and interferometers within an industrial or scientific environment.
• Proficient in one or more optical modeling tools for imaging optics, such as Zemax or Code V.
• Strong quantitative data analysis abilities using tools such as Matlab, Python, or equivalent.
• To conform to U.S. Government space technology export regulations, including the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR), Skyloom must be a U.S. citizen, lawful U.S. permanent resident (i.e., current Green Card holder), or lawfully admitted into the U.S. as a refugee or granted asylum, or be eligible to obtain the required authorizations from the U.S. Department of State and/or the U.S. Department of Commerce, as applicable.
  
  Learn more about ITAR here.

• Space‑flight industry experience
• Laser Safety knowledge
• Experience transitioning an optical product into production
• Spanish speaking is a plus

The annual salary range for this role as it is posted is $136,764 - $160,000. The final job level and annual salary will be determined based on the education, qualification,…