Senior Optomechanical Design Engineer – R&D Photonics

Light Trace Photonics; West of England; On-site; GBP 65,000 - 90,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Share options

Pension contributions

25 days leave + holidays

Flexitime core hours 10am-3pm

Job summary

Light Trace Photonics, a Bristol-based company, is seeking a Senior Mechanical Design Engineer to lead mechanical design across our R&D prototyping projects. You will own the mechanical architecture and act as the mechanical authority in design reviews and technical decisions.

You will work across product design, prototype builds and laboratory equipment modification, balancing manufacturability, tolerance, and reliability as you move between diverse mechanical problems.

Qualifications

• Substantial mechanical or optomechanical design experience, ideally including high precision work.
• Expert command of a 3D CAD package (Autodesk, SolidWorks or similar).
• Strong grasp of precision engineering fundamentals, including kinematic design, stiffness and vibration, thermal effects and repeatability.
• Experience specifying and integrating precision motion and actuation hardware, and the fixturing that positions work accurately.
• Competence in tolerance analysis, geometric dimensioning and tolerancing, and finite element analysis.
• Experience taking a piece of equipment or an instrument from specification through build to commissioning.
• Hands-on prototyping, 3D printing and assembly, and comfort on the tools as well as at the screen.
• Experience testing hardware against defined specifications, and the metrology skills to prove it.
• Clear written and spoken communication, and the ability to work in a small team where priorities move.

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;
• Own the relationship with machine shops and specialist suppliers, from specification and quotation through to acceptance.

Skills

High precision design

3D design expertise

Thermal & vibration analysis

Tolerance analysis

FEM analysis

Prototype testing

Hands-on prototyping

Project leadership

Communication in small teams

Tools

3D CAD – SolidWorks

FEA tools

Job description

Light Trace Photonics, a Bristol-based company, is seeking a Senior Mechanical Design Engineer to lead mechanical design across our R&D prototyping projects. You will own the mechanical architecture and act as the mechanical authority in design reviews and technical decisions.

You will work across product design, prototype builds and laboratory equipment modification, balancing manufacturability, tolerance, and reliability as you move between diverse mechanical problems.