Senior Optical System Engineer

Location

El Segundo

Full time

On-site

Hardware Engineering

Welcome to Matter, where we are building the future of vision AI: pairing a world-first sensor that sees molecular chemistry, temperature, and 3D shape with a Large World Model that will be the most powerful intelligence engine for the physical world. This system doesn’t just see what something looks like; it understands everything from a single pixel. We call this Superintelligent Vision
.

Our team has delivered technologies to Mars for NASA/JPL, designed advanced sensors for U.S. defense, and built core infrastructure  are now building the next generation of space- and airborne-based sensing systems.

We are seeking a Senior Optical Systems Engineer to own the end-to-end optical performance of complex electro-optical payloads — from early concept and system trades through design, integration, test, and (where applicable) on-orbit or airborne operation.

This role is the technical authority for optical system performance
, responsible for translating mission objectives into optical requirements, guiding design implementation, verifying performance analytically and experimentally, and supporting calibration and operations.

You will work closely with systems engineering, optomechanical, thermal, electronics, AI&T, and data teams, as well as external suppliers and partners.

• Define and own optical system architectures for spaceborne and airborne remote-sensing payloads.

• Translate mission objectives into optical requirements (resolution, SNR, spectral performance, stability).

• Lead system-level optical trades (e.g., aperture, altitude, FOV, spectral bandpass, detector selection).

• Support mission-level performance modeling including radiometric, geometric, and image-quality budgets.

• Develop and maintain comprehensive optical performance models.

• Perform and review analyses including:

• Radiometry and SNR

• MTF and image quality metrics

• Spectral response and bandpass performance

• Sensitivity to alignment, thermal, and structural effects

• Support STOP analysis in collaboration with optomechanical and thermal engineers.

• Independently verify performance predictions from internal teams or external suppliers.

• Review and guide optical and opto-mechanical designs to ensure system-level performance requirements are met.

• Provide technical oversight to internal and external payload development activities.

• Support optical alignment strategies, tolerances, and verification plans.

• Partner with AI&T teams during payload integration, alignment, and test.

• Define optical verification and validation approaches.

• Support ground testing, calibration, and environmental qualification of payloads.

• Analyze test data to validate optical performance and close requirements.

• Support commissioning activities, including on-orbit or airborne data analysis and image quality assessment.

• Assist in diagnosing and resolving optical performance anomalies during test or operations.

• Present optical designs and performance results at system, program, and customer reviews.

• Communicate complex optical concepts clearly to multidisciplinary and non-optical audiences.

• Mentor junior optical and systems engineers.

• Contribute optical content to proposals, BOEs, and technical planning efforts.

• Optical systems meet or exceed performance requirements across all mission phases.

• Optical performance is well understood, modeled, and verified before flight.

• Integration and test proceed smoothly with minimal optical rework.

• Calibration and commissioning yield high-quality, reliable data products.

• Optical risks are identified early and mitigated effectively.

Required

• Bachelor’s degree in Optical Engineering, Physics, Electrical Engineering, or related field.

• 8+ years of experience in optical systems engineering for EO/IR or remote-sensing systems.

• Strong expertise in optical performance analysis (MTF, SNR, radiometry, spectral response).

• Experience with detector…