Senior Mechanical Engineer (OptiArray)

Optics11 Life; Amsterdam; On-site; EUR 90,000 - 130,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

30 days of holiday per year

Fresh team lunches five times a week

Competitive salary and benefits

Job summary

Optics11 is a fast-growing high-tech company in Amsterdam, delivering fiber optic sensing systems for demanding environments. As Senior Mechanical Engineer, you will develop robust, manufacturable mechanical solutions for the OptiArray system, ensuring offshore deployment and lifecycle reliability.

You will collaborate across engineering disciplines, work with suppliers and offshore contractors, and drive design improvements for manufacturability and lifecycle performance.

Qualifications

• Degree in mechanical/marine/offshore engineering or related field.
• Experience in offshore, marine, mechanical, or structural systems.
• Proficient with CAD tools and technical documentation.

Responsibilities

• Develop robust, manufacturable mechanical and structural solutions for the OptiArray system across the product lifecycle.
• Translate requirements into designs for offshore deployment and long-term subsea operation.
• Design and integrate structural components, interfaces, lifting arrangements, and corrosion protection.

Skills

Offshore/marine engineering

Structural analysis

Problem solving

English communication

Security clearance eligibility

Education

Bachelor or Master in Mechanical/Marine Engineering

Tools

SolidWorks

CAD drafting

Job description

Optics11 is a fast-growing high-tech company based in Amsterdam, developing advanced fiber optic sensing systems for the most demanding environments. Our technology detects the earliest signs of failure in critical assets – from high-voltage energy infrastructure to subsea and defense applications – and gives our customers precise, real-time data they can act on.

Within our Underwater Security business we develop sensing technologies that help detect and monitor underwater threats. Our solutions include OptiBarrier, designed for immediate, over-the-horizon threat detection, and OptiArray, our low-power optical thin-line towed array for unmanned underwater vehicles and submarines.

The Role

As a Senior Mechanical Engineer at Optics11, you are responsible for the development and engineering realization of the OptiArray system. Your primary objective is to develop robust, structural, easy to manufacture solutions that ensure the array can be easily manufactured, deployed, and operated throughout their intended service life.

You translate allocated product and system requirements into engineering solutions that provide structural integrity, mechanical robustness, corrosion resistance, manufacturability, and reliable offshore deployment.

You work closely with Product System Engineering, Product Integration, Verification & Validation, Lifecycle Engineering, manufacturing partners, offshore contractors, and specialized suppliers to ensure the array is successfully developed and realized as part of the overall product.

Responsibilities

• Develop and realize robust, manufacturable mechanical and structural solutions for the OptiArray system throughout the product development lifecycle.

• Translate product and system requirements into mechanical designs suitable for offshore deployment and long-term subsea operation.

• Design and integrate structural components, interfaces, mounting features, lifting arrangements, and corrosion protection solutions into the overall product.

• Produce engineering drawings, specifications, calculations, interface documentation, and design records.

• Perform structural engineering analyses and testing, including lifting loads, fatigue, hydrodynamic behavior, environmental loads, and mechanical robustness.

• Develop and evaluate prototypes and engineering models to validate structural performance and manufacturability.

• Drive design improvements focused on manufacturability, assembly, maintainability, reliability, and lifecycle performance.

• Support product integration, verification, qualification, FAT, and industrialization activities, resolving mechanical and structural issues where required.

• Perform engineering trade-offs considering structural integrity, weight, cost, manufacturability, corrosion resistance, offshore installation, and lifecycle performance.

• Work closely with fabrication suppliers, offshore contractors, and technical partners to ensure designs can be successfully manufactured, deployed, and operated.

• Identify technical risks, investigate root causes, and implement effective design improvements and mitigation measures.

• Provide technical guidance within the marine structures domain and collaborate across engineering disciplines to support sound technical decisions and successful product delivery.

What we offer

• Join one of Europe’s fastest-growing deep-tech scale-ups.

• Real impact: your work directly shapes our growth and success.

• A great team in an international organization with colleagues from more than twenty nationalities.

• A competitive salary and benefits package.

• 30 days of holiday per year.

• Fresh team lunches five times a week, plus regular team activities and company events.

Requirements

• BSc or MSc in Mechanical Engineering, Structural Engineering, Marine Engineering, Offshore Engineering, Naval Architecture, or related engineering discipline.

• Minimum 5 years of experience developing offshore, marine, mechanical, or structural systems.

• Proficiency in working with SolidWorks or equivalent CAD systems to develop and review mechanical designs, assemblies, engineering drawings, and technical documentation.

• Experience designing marine products, offshore equipment, or subsea mechanical systems.

• Experience performing structural calculations, load analysis, fatigue assessment, and mechanical interface design.

• Experience working with fabrication suppliers and manufacturing partners.

• Experience working within multidisciplinary product development teams.

• Strong analytical and structured engineering problem-solving skills.

• Excellent written and verbal communication skills in English.

• Eligible to obtain EU/NATO security clearance.

Preferred

• Experience with corrosion protection, cathodic protection, offshore coatings, or subsea structural design.

• Hands-on experience with SolidWorks for mechanical design, assembly modelling, and detailed production drawings.

• Experience taking ownership of a system or significant technical workstream within multidisciplinary engineering projects.

• Familiarity with systems engineering, product lifecycle management, verification, and configuration management.

Screening

You will work with clients in the defense and security sectors. Obtaining a Certificate of No Objection issued by the AIVD, the Dutch General Intelligence and Security Service, is mandatory. This means you will need to undergo a security screening. We will explain the process and guide you through the applicable requirements.