Senior Optical Engineer - Lead Space Laser Optics (London)

Foundational; Greater London; On-site; GBP 65,000 - 100,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

EMI share options (UK employees)

25 Days Annual Leave + Bank Holidays

Enhanced Parental Leave

Cycle to work schemes

Offices in central London

Job summary

Foundational in London is seeking a Senior Optical Engineer to own optical design across our laser ranging stations, tracking systems and retroreflector products. This is a hands-on senior role.

You will set the architecture, run the analyses and be in the lab when hardware is built. You will lead transmit/receive designs, perform tolerancing, test optics for daylight and night operation, and mentor graduates while writing technical content for ESA and customers.

Qualifications

• Extensive experience in optical engineering for space/instrumentation.
• Proficiency with optical design software and tolerance analysis.
• Hands-on alignment, metrology and test experience.

Responsibilities

• Lead optical design for transmit and receive paths from requirements to hardware verification.
• Design and test optics for tracking satellites in daylight and at night.
• Support design and test of retroreflector arrays for LEO/MEO missions.
• Run trade studies on telescopes, coatings and filters with suppliers.
• Mentor graduate and junior engineers and set design/test standards.
• Write technical content for ESA and customer programmes.

Skills

Optical engineering

Zemax OpticStudio

CODE V

Tolerance analysis

Interferometry

Wavefront sensing

Radiometry

High‑power laser optics

Technical writing

Education

Advanced degree in optics or related field

Tools

Zemax OpticStudio

CODE V

Job description

Foundational in London is seeking a Senior Optical Engineer to own optical design across our laser ranging stations, tracking systems and retroreflector products. This is a hands-on senior role.

You will set the architecture, run the analyses and be in the lab when hardware is built. You will lead transmit/receive designs, perform tolerancing, test optics for daylight and night operation, and mentor graduates while writing technical content for ESA and customers.