Optical Engineer – High-Power Laser & Beam Control

Electro Optic Systems; Australia; On-site; AUD 90,000 - 150,000; Full time

Job summary

EOS is building our high energy laser weapon capability within the Directed Energy group, developing laser systems for C-UAS and short-range air defence. The Optical Engineer will own the path from the laser output to the target, covering beam expansion, relay optics, fast steering, the beam director telescope and sensing that keeps the spot on target.

You will move between optical design software, the optical bench, the integration floor and the range, and you will be accountable for as-built

Qualifications

• Degree in optical engineering, physics or a closely related discipline.
• Minimum 3 years designing and integrating optical systems in an industrial or applied research setting.
• Proficiency with Zemax OpticStudio, Code V or FRED including tolerance analysis.
• Practical experience with interferometry, wavefront sensing and the alignment of multi-element optical systems.
• Working knowledge of optical coatings, substrates and laser-induced damage in high power applications.
• Ability to specify optics to external vendors and to critically assess supplier test data against requirements.
• Willingness to travel to the test range and trial sites regularly, including periods of out-of-hours work around demonstration campaigns.
• Postgraduate qualification in optics or photonics (highly regarded).
• Experience with adaptive optics, deformable mirrors or atmospheric propagation modelling (highly regarded).
• Experience with gimbal mounted or gyro-stabilised electro-optic payloads (highly regarded).
• Stray light analysis experience using FRED, TracePro or equivalent (highly regarded).

Responsibilities

• Design beam director and beam path optical trains, including telescopes, relay optics, fast steering mirrors, dichroics and folded beam paths.
• Model optical performance including tolerance analysis, stray light, ghost paths and thermal effects under sustained high irradiance.
• Specify optics, substrates and coatings for high power operation, including damage threshold, absorption, wavefront and cleanliness requirements.
• Develop alignment strategies and procedures and translate them into build, integration and field maintenance instructions.
• Characterise as-built optical performance including wavefront error, boresight stability, transmission and encircled energy, and feed the results back into design.
• Support beam stabilisation and adaptive optics development in conjunction with the control systems and software teams.
• Work with mechanical design on opto-mechanical mounting, athermalisation, stiffness and adjustment strategy, and own the associated interface definitions.
• Produce optical design documentation, drawings, interface control documents and test reports within the EOS systems engineering framework.

Skills

Optical design

Interferometry

Wavefront sensing

High-power optics

Education

Degree in optical engineering or physics

Tools

Zemax OpticStudio

Code V

FRED

TracePro

Job description

EOS is building our high energy laser weapon capability within the Directed Energy group, developing laser systems for C-UAS and short-range air defence. The Optical Engineer will own the path from the laser output to the target, covering beam expansion, relay optics, fast steering, the beam director telescope and sensing that keeps the spot on target.

You will move between optical design software, the optical bench, the integration floor and the range, and you will be accountable for as-built