Computational Optics Engineer

Cosmic Frontier’s mission is to dramatically expand access to high performance space telescopes, democratize the scientific process, and build tools for exploring the Universe.

Cosmic Frontier team members own the full lifecycle of spaceflight hardware and software, from early architecture through flight. We build and fly real hardware. The systems you build will go to orbit within the next two years.

We’re looking for a computational optics engineer to model, simulate, and improve the imaging performance of our space telescopes, and to connect those models to what we build and measure.

If you love turning physics into capability and can translate models into buildable hardware, we want to talk.

• Build and own wavefront and image performance models (PSF, MTF, WFE budgets) and make them useful for design decisions
• Work on stray light modeling, tolerancing, and reconstruction methods where they actually buy performance
• Correlate models to lab data, define acceptance tests, and help close the loop between design, build, and test

• Stand up a v1 simulation pipeline in Python that produces the metrics we will track program wide
• Deliver a v1 performance and stability budget and identify the top sensitivity drivers
• Define an optical verification plan that ties lab measurements to on orbit performance

• Strong education background in Optical Engineering, Physics, or a related field, plus 4 or more years building and owning imaging performance models for real hardware
• Strong hands on experience with wavefront and image modeling, including PSF, MTF, WFE budgets, tolerancing, and stray light analysis
• Proven ability to build simulation pipelines in Python and turn models into actionable design decisions
• Track record of correlating models to lab data and closing the loop between design, build, and test

• Experience with space based or high performance optical systems, ideally telescopes or remote sensing payloads
• Background in stability analysis and performance budgeting across thermal, structural, and optical domains
• Familiarity with reconstruction methods or computational imaging techniques that improve system level performance
• Comfortable operating in an early stage environment where you define processes, move fast, and own outcomes
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