Senior Optomechanical Design Engineer - Prototyping Lead

ADLIB; West of England; On-site; GBP 60,000 - 90,000; Full time

Job summary

Light Trace Photonics, Bristol-based, seeks a Senior Mechanical Design Engineer to own mechanical architecture across R&D prototyping projects. You’ll lead from requirements to tested hardware, and liaison with suppliers and machine shops, ensuring precision and manufacturability throughout development.

You will act as the mechanical authority in reviews, manage prototyping efforts, and contribute to lab equipment modifications to support fast-moving innovation in photonics packaging.

Qualifications

• Substantial mechanical or optomechanical design experience, including high precision or micro-mechanical work.
• Expert command of a 3D CAD package (Autodesk, SolidWorks or similar), including large assemblies and drawing production.
• Strong grasp of precision engineering fundamentals: kinematics, stiffness, vibration, thermal effects, repeatability.
• Experience specifying and integrating precision motion and actuation hardware, and the fixturing to position work.
• Tolerance analysis, geometric dimensioning and tolerancing, and finite element analysis experience.
• Hands-on prototyping, 3D printing and assembly; comfortable at the screen.

Responsibilities

• Lead mechanical design across R&D prototyping projects from requirements capture through detailed design to tested hardware.
• Design high precision mechanical assemblies and optomechanical sub-components, and see them through prototype build and test.
• Design and adapt the laboratory equipment that supports our development programmes.
• Model and test prototype performance under environmental and lifetime conditions, and feed the results back into the design.
• Consider manufacturability and volume deployment at every design phase, alongside the partners who will ultimately build at scale.
• Lead design reviews and set the drawing, tolerancing and documentation standards; and
• Own the relationship with machine shops and specialist suppliers, from specification and quotation through to acceptance.
• Delivering mechanical outputs for key R&D projects to schedule and to budget.
• Acting as the technical authority on mechanical design decisions, and building the case for the approach taken.
• Ensuring hardware and equipment built for internal use is safe and fit for purpose.
• Specifying equipment and tooling purchases and justifying them to the Chief Technology Officer.
• Reporting development and test progress clearly to senior leadership.

Skills

High precision design

3D CAD proficiency

Prototype development

Tolerance analysis

Metrology

Team collaboration

Prototype testing

Tools

Autodesk

SolidWorks

FEA

Job description

Light Trace Photonics, Bristol-based, seeks a Senior Mechanical Design Engineer to own mechanical architecture across R&D prototyping projects. You’ll lead from requirements to tested hardware, and liaison with suppliers and machine shops, ensuring precision and manufacturability throughout development.

You will act as the mechanical authority in reviews, manage prototyping efforts, and contribute to lab equipment modifications to support fast-moving innovation in photonics packaging.