Star Catcher Industries, Inc., located in
Jacksonville, Florida, has an opportunity for an
Optical Engineer - EO Payloads & Imaging Optics to support the development of space-to-space power beaming spacecraft and the Star Catcher Network, its orbital power grid.
Key Responsibilities- Design the optics of electro-optical (EO) payloads for long-range space-based tracking, working with the senior EO engineer, covering the full imaging optical stack: telescope, relay and reimaging optics, field and Lyot stops, beam splitters, spectral filters, and the focal-plane interface.
- Derive imaging requirements (detection range, signal-to-noise ratio, angular resolution, localization accuracy, field of view, frame rate, and stray-light rejection) from tracking needs together with systems engineering.
- Design reflective imaging telescopes (Cassegrain, Ritchey-Chrétien, and three-mirror anastigmat forms) and the relay and focal-plane optics that follow them.
- Build imaging performance budgets - WFE, MTF, encircled energy, and radiometric/SNR - decompose them into line items,and track them through test.
- Select and specify detectors and focal-plane arrays with Electrical Engineering, including pixel pitch, spectral band, quantum efficiency, noise, frame rate, and windowing for tracking.
- Perform stray-light analysis and baffle, stop, and sunshade design for operation near the Sun, Earth limb, and bright sources.
- Define the optical interfaces between the imaging payload and PAT, including tracking-sensor paths, shared-aperture and transmit/receive separation, and boresight to the transmit beam.
- Perform tolerancing and STOP analysis with mechanical and thermal engineers, including athermalization and 1-g to 0-g focus effects.
- Carry designs from concept through specifications, drawings, and BOM; support assembly, alignment, focus, image-quality testing, and radiometric and geometric calibration.
Basic Qualifications- Education: Bachelor's degree in Optical Engineering, Optics, Physics, or a related technical discipline.
- Experience: 3+ years of hands-on optical design experience on EO or imaging systems. Candidates with substantially more experience, including payloads taken through build and test, are preferred.
Technical Expertise- Expert use of Zemax OpticStudio and/or CODE V for imaging design, including tolerancing and image-quality analysis (MTF, encircled energy, distortion).
- Deep understanding of reflective telescope forms, relay optics, pupil and stop placement, and the tradeoffs between on-axis and unobscured designs.
- Radiometry and SNR modeling for point and extended targets, including detector noise sources, background, and integration-time tradeoffs.
- Experience integrating optics with detectors and focal-plane arrays, including sampling, focus, and calibration.
- Stray-light analysis and control (baffles, stops, coatings, surface scatter).
- Ability to build imaging error budgets that combine optics, detector, and line-of-sight jitter contributions.
Preferred Qualifications- Flight EO Payloads: Design of flown EO/IR payloads, star trackers, or space-based tracking sensors.
- Space Domain Awareness: Detection and tracking of resolved or unresolved objects in space.
- Stray-Light Tools: FRED, ASAP, or equivalent.
- Infrared Optics: Cryogenic or IR optical design, if mission bands extend beyond visible/NIR.
- Integrated Modeling: STOP analysis and athermal design.
- Advanced Degrees: Master's degree or Ph.D. 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. 
