Staff Optical Engineer - 5

You will work as part of a multidisciplinary seeker engineering team responsible foroptical design, analysis, integration, and testof development and flight hardware. The role is centered onoptical engineering for imaging and sensing systems(visible through LWIR), with an emphasis on how optomechanical design and environments drive optical performance. At the staff level, you will provide technical leadership, develop and implement new tools and methods, and ensure systemlevel performance across the full mission profile.

Responsibilities

• Lead and contribute to the design and analysis of optical systems for imaging and sensing applications (e.g., refractive/reflective optics, relay optics, athermalized systems, objective lenses).

• Perform and own optical performance analyses (e.g., wavefront error, MTF, line of sight (LOS) stability, boresight, sensitivity, and tolerancing) across expected environmental and operational conditions, with a high degree of self-checking.

• Develop and maintain optical error budgets, including contributions from alignment, manufacturing tolerances, thermal and structural effects, and line of sight stability; review others work for accuracy and consistency.

• Perform and guide Structurally Induced Line of Sight (SILOS) analysis in collaboration with structural and thermal analysts to ensure optical performance is maintained through the full mission profile; drive system level solutions to optical structural thermal interactions.

• Define and allocate optical requirements and tolerances at the system, subsystem, and component levels; flow requirements to optomechanical design, manufacturing, and test, ensuring system level compliance.

• Collaborate closely with opto-mechanical, systems, electrical, and manufacturing engineers to ensure that optical designs are realizable, producible, and testable, and support system level trade studies and design optimization.

• Guide and review the development of optomechanical designs (mounts, cells, structures) that support optical alignment, stability, and environmental robustness; develop or refine methods and tools to improve robustness and efficiency.

• Support and sometimes leadlaboratory and environmental test activities, including optical alignment, calibration, performance verification, and correlation of analysis to test (vibration, thermal, shock, etc.).

• Participate in and frequently lead design reviews (internal and customer), presenting optical design concepts, analyses, error budgets, and test results to stakeholders; serve as a subject matter expert for optical performance.

• Provide technical leadership, mentoring, and guidance to early and mid-career engineers in optical design, analysis, and problem solving.

• Drive continuous improvement and innovation, including development and implementation of new tools, methods, and processes to improve optical design quality, efficiency, and robustness.

• Assist with and often lead troubleshooting, root cause analysis, and design updates for prototype and production hardware when optical performance issues are identified, including system level investigations.

Basic Qualifications

• Bachelor degree inOptical Engineering, Physics, Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, or related discipline from an accredited university and 12 years of relevant experience; or a Master degree and 10 years of experience; or a PhD and 8 years of experience.

• Active U.S. Government Department of Defense (DoD) Secret security clearance at time of application.

• Demonstrated experience withoptical systemsused in imaging, sensing, or seeker applications; including system-level performance ownership.

• Experience withoptical performance analysisand an understanding of how structural and thermal environments affect imaging quality and line of sight (e.g., STOP/SILOS concepts).

• Proficiency withoptical modeling tools(e.g., ZEMAX, Code V, FRED, or equivalent) for design, analysis, and tolerancing.

• Experience with3D CAD tools(e.g., CREO, NX, SolidWorks) to interface effectively with optomechanical designs; ANSYS Mechanical experience preferred.

• Experience withoptical imaging systemsin one or more spectral bands (e.g., visible, NIR, SWIR, MWIR, LWIR).

• Demonstrated ability to independently determine and develop technical approaches and solutions, complete complex tasks with minimal oversight, and drive tasks to completion.

• Strong technical communication skills, including the ability to generate clear documentation and present optical design/analysis results to technical and nontechnical audiences, and to represent the organization in technical discussions with customers.

Preferred Qualifications

• MS or PhD inOptical Engineering, Physics, or Mechanical Engineeringwith a focus on optical systems.

• Previous experience with DoD missile defense or seeker programs, including familiarity with performance verification frameworks, environmental qualification, and flight test correlation.

• Handson experience withSTOP and SILOS modeling workflowsand integration of structural/thermal results with optical design tools.

• Experience withDoD missile defense programs and associated standards pertaining to missile systems, seeker systems, or other highreliability environmentally challenging electrooptical applications.

• Deep experience with EO systems, including optical design, analysis and tolerancing, stray light control, error budgets, radiometric budgets, opto-mechanical design, and focal plane technologies.

• Demonstrated experience leading optical and environmental test campaigns and correlating measured optical performance to predictive analyses.

• Experience serving as a subject matter expert and/or technical lead across functional teams, including mentoring, technical review, and cross discipline coordination.

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