Research Associate - Astrophotonic Instrumentation

Select how often (in days) to receive an alert:

Priority may be given to the following designated employment equity groups: women, Indigenous Peoples* (First Nations, Inuit and Métis), persons with disabilities and racialized persons*.

* The Employment Equity Act, which is under review, uses the terminology Aboriginal peoples and visible minorities.

Candidates are asked to self-declare when applying to this hiring process.

City:Victoria

Organizational Unit:Herzberg Astronomy and Astrophysics

Classification:RO

Duration: 3 years

Work arrangements: Due to the nature of the work and operational requirements, this position will require full-time physical presence at the NRC work location identified.
At the NRC, we recognize that Indigenous candidates may have important connections to their communities and you may be eligible for an exception to this work arrangement. Alternative work arrangements may also be considered to accommodate candidates as required. To learn more about these options, please contact the NRC Hiring team using the contact information below.

We are seeking an instrumentation scientist or engineer who will play a lead role in the development of new astronomical instrumentation based on fiber optic and photonic chip technologies. The Instrumentation Scientist would be someone who shares our core values of Integrity, Excellence, Respect, and Creativity.

The successful candidate will participate in the TESERACT project, a Cube Sat mission that will demonstrate a novel type of spectroscopy in space. As a Research Associate in our team, you will contribute to the instrumentation effort based on our photonic integral field unit (IFU) architecture through fiber-coupling, alignment, integration, on-sky and in-lab characterization.

The long-term objective is a multi-object spectral characterization instrument for biosignature detection on Earth‑like exoplanets, with applications in Earth observation. The work shifts from bulk optics to chip‑scale photonic processing, improving size, weight, power, cost, stability, and scalability while maintaining high resolution.

Key technical areas include:

• Integral field unit (IFU) and integral field spectroscopy feed design and integration
• Fiber‑coupling, microlens arrays, and beam‑remapping optics
• Optical design, alignment, and integration of instrument front‑ends
• Photonic device and sub‑system characterization at visible and near‑infrared wavelengths
• On‑sky commissioning and validation on ground‑based telescopes

You will collaborate with researchers from NRC’s Quantum and Nanotechnologies Research Center, the University of Toronto, and Queen's University Belfast, with travel to collaborator sites.

Applicants must demonstrate within the content of their application that they meet the following screening criteria in order to be given further consideration as candidates:

• Ph.D. in Science or Engineering, or
• A Master’s degree in an Engineering field with relevant experience.

Significant experience in at least two of the following areas:

• astronomical instrumentation hardware development.
• working with optical fibers.
• optical design, optical alignment and setting up new optical benchtop systems.
• design or characterization of photonic chip technologies.

the following may be considered as assets:

• Experience working in an astronomical instrumentation development team.
• Experience using or developing optical spectrographs, integral field units (IFUs) or adaptive optic systems.
• Experience with Cube Sat or small satellite payloads and space systems engineering.
• Experience working with lasers, scientific cameras / optical detectors.
• Experience working with photonic integrated…