Star Catcher Industries, Inc., located in
Jacksonville, Florida, has an opportunity for an
Optical Engineer - Beam Expander & Optical Systems Design to support the development of space-to-space power beaming spacecraft and the Star Catcher Network, its orbital power grid.
Key Responsibilities- Design reflective beam expanders for space-based laser applications under the technical direction of the designated optical design lead.
- Perform optical design, optimization, and tolerancing in Zemax OpticStudio or CODE V to satisfy beam diameter, divergence, wavefront quality, and pointing-range requirements.
- Model beam propagation from the laser source to the target, including Gaussian/M² effects, truncation, obscuration, and the impact of wavefront error on far-field irradiance.
- Build top-level beam-propagation WFE budgets, decompose them into finer line items, and track predicted versus measured performance.
- Produce optical component specifications, drawings, and BOMs; support vendor selection, procurement, and incoming inspection.
- Work with opto-mechanical and thermal engineers on mounts, thermal sensitivity, and STOP analysis inputs.
- Support assembly, alignment, and test of beam-expander hardware, including hands-on laser alignment in the lab.
- Address high-power considerations in the design, including coatings, LIDT, back-reflections, ghost foci, and stray light.
- Document designs, analyses, and test results for design reviews.
Basic Qualifications- Education: Bachelor's degree in Optical Engineering, Optics, Physics, or a related technical discipline.
- Experience: 3+ years of optical design or laser-system experience; candidates with plenty of design experience are preferred.
Technical Expertise- Proficiency in Zemax OpticStudio or CODE V, including sequential design, optimization, and tolerancing.
- Solid understanding of first-order optics, reflective and afocal systems, and third-order aberrations.
- Working knowledge of Gaussian beam propagation, M², and diffraction.
- Hands-on experience aligning optics for laser systems, including beam steering, collimation, and beam expansion.
- Familiarity with interferometric measurement and WFE metrics (RMS, peak-to-valley, Zernike terms, Strehl ratio).
Preferred Qualifications- High-Power Lasers: Experience with optics for kW-class lasers.
- Physical Optics: Physical optics propagation in Zemax, or wave-optics models in Python or MATLAB.
- Space Hardware: Experience with flight optics or environmental testing.
- Programming: Python or MATLAB for analysis automation.
- Advanced Degrees: Master's degree in Optical Sciences, Optical Engineering, or Physics.
Help us deploy and scale space infrastructure that will drive our utilization of space forward! We offer a highly competitive benefits package including access to comprehensive medical, dental, and vision coverage, 401(k) retirement plan, life insurance, and paid parental leave, in addition to other benefits. 
