Senior Avionics Optical Engineer
Impulse Space
USD 135k-185k / year + Equity
Posted on Apr 11, 2025
As a Senior Avionics Optical Engineer, you will design and test custom lens stacks, baffles, and other optical products for star trackers, cameras, and other optical devices. You will work directly with electrical engineers, mechanical engineers, firmware engineers, GNC engineers, and others. You will have the opportunity to contribute to all aspects of spacecraft optical devices, from architecting new systems to testing and flying them
- Department
- Avionics
- Employment Type
- Full Time
- Location
- Redondo Beach
- Workplace type
- Onsite
- Compensation
- $135,000 - $185,000 / year
- Reporting To
- Carl Haken, VP of Avionics
Responsibilities
- Develop new lens stacks, baffles, and other optical components
- Perform rigorous analyses and simulations of optical devices
- Help create optical test setups and debug issues with optical components
- Develop, document, and deliver essential quantitative metrics for a robust optical imaging system, such as MTF, PSF, spot size, and chromatic abberation
- Own hardware through qualification and flight operations
- Contribute to new spacecraft architectural trades as they relate to optics
- Establish and maintain high technical standards and mentor less experienced engineers
Minimum Qualifications
- Bachelor’s degree in Engineering
- 5+ years professional experience designing lens stacks or other optical devices
- Expertise with at least one conventional optical design tool (e.g. Zemax or other)
- Proficiency with lens design principles, ray optics, Fourier optics, and gaussian beams
- Demonstrated experience developing optical test systems and troubleshooting new optical devices
- Demonstrated Experience with making optics insensitive to temperature variation
- Desire and ability to improve team processes and train other team members
- Ability to communicate technical challenges, explain rationale and/or resolve concern
Preferred Skills and Experience
- Master’s degree or PhD related to optical engineering
- Experience with space environments, e.g. vibration, vacuum, and ionizing radiation
- Experience selecting and evaluating camera sense elements
- Experience with optomechanical design, e.g. drawings, GD&T, etc
- Experience designing optical components for manufacturability
Additional Information:
Compensation bands are determined by role, level, location, and alignment with market data. Individual level and base pay is determined on a case-by-case basis and may vary based on job-related skills, education, experience, technical capabilities and internal equity. In addition to base salary, for full-time hires, you may also be eligible for long-term incentives, in the form of stock options, and access to medical, vision & dental coverage as well as access to a 401(k) retirement plan.
To conform to U.S. Government space technology export regulations, including the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) you must be a U.S. citizen, lawful permanent resident of the U.S., protected individual as defined by 8 U.S.C. 1324b(a)(3), or eligible to obtain the required authorizations from the U.S. Department of State. Learn more about the ITAR here.
Compensation bands are determined by role, level, location, and alignment with market data. Individual level and base pay is determined on a case-by-case basis and may vary based on job-related skills, education, experience, technical capabilities and internal equity. In addition to base salary, for full-time hires, you may also be eligible for long-term incentives, in the form of stock options, and access to medical, vision & dental coverage as well as access to a 401(k) retirement plan.
To conform to U.S. Government space technology export regulations, including the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) you must be a U.S. citizen, lawful permanent resident of the U.S., protected individual as defined by 8 U.S.C. 1324b(a)(3), or eligible to obtain the required authorizations from the U.S. Department of State. Learn more about the ITAR here.
Impulse Space is an Equal Opportunity Employer; employment with Impulse Space is governed on the basis of merit, competence and qualifications and will not be influenced in any manner by race, color, religion, gender, national origin/ethnicity, veteran status, disability status, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, mental or physical disability or any other legally protected status.
About Impulse Space
Impulse Space, the in-space transportation company founded by Tom Mueller, is opening access beyond Low Earth Orbit (LEO) with its fleet of in-space transportation vehicles. The high-energy Helios vehicle unlocks orbits beyond LEO with its powerful Deneb engine, dropping off payloads in MEO, GEO, heliocentric, lunar, and other planetary orbits. The flight-proven Mira vehicle uses a nontoxic, high-impulse chemical propulsion system to offer orbital transport, constellation deployment, and precision reentry services to customers throughout LEO. Led by a team that delivered the most reliable rockets in history, Impulse provides economical and efficient in-space transportation by reliably and rapidly getting customers where they want to go.
Our Hiring Process
Stage 1:
Application Received
Stage 2:
Resume Review
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