Job Description
The Hardware Engineering Group at my client is seeking strong candidates for a Principal Optical Engineer to serve as a senior individual contributor to the company’s mission of building state-of-the-art, manufacturable, and deployable neutral atom quantum computers. The Hardware Engineering Group plays a crucial role in accelerating the company’s technology leadership and translating the company’s scientific breakthroughs into products delivered to customers. To accomplish this mission, we are looking to hire a candidate with graduate-level education in optics, optical engineering, or applied physics with industry experience in an enterprise engineering environment. The ideal candidate will combine a deep, fundamental understanding of several areas of optics, design, and engineering. Although candidates with a Ph.D. in physics may be considered, applicants should ensure they have sufficient professional experience beyond academia in an enterprise engineering environment to establish themselves independently as a Principal-level engineer.
Key Job Responsibilities
- Optical module design and development
- Work with physicists to understand requirements and architect optical systems, sub-systems, modules, and components to support my clients neutral atom computers through the full development lifecycle (R&D, productization, maintenance, and beyond).
- Technically lead an interdisciplinary team of engineers (optical, electronic, mechanical, etc.) through the product development process to take an optical module from early phase concept through to implementation and production.
- Advance state-of-the-art engineering practices at my client through independent research, problem-solving, and continuous improvement initiatives.
- Coordinate closely with the R&D/science team to enable cutting-edge R&D and translate scientific advances into the next generation of products.
- Troubleshoot technical issues at company headquarters and off-site installations at customer locations (in coordination with local support team).
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Qualifications
Required:
- Master's degree in optics, optical engineering, applied physics, or a closely related field.
- 10-15 years non-academic work experience. Experience at an enterprise scale as well as startup preferred.
- Deep experience and knowledge of
- Free-space optics
- Lens design
- Fiber optics
- Lasers
- Optical system characterization and testing
- Opto-mechanics
- Experience bringing complex optical systems from concept to production
- Expertise with using Mechanical CAD software (e.g. Inventor, Solidworks), Product Data Management (PDM) software, Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) software
- Expertise with Optical simulation software (e.g. Zemax)
Preferred:
- Experience with quantum computing, especially neutral atom
- Professional work experience in commercial product development and off-site product deployment at customer premises.
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The approximate base salary range for this position is $151,200 - $236,250.
We consistently monitor external market data and update base salary ranges accordingly. We determine base compensation decisions on several factors, including as geographic placement, role-specific knowledge, skills, and/or experience. In addition to our base salary offerings, we also provide equity grants for all new hires.