Optical Design Engineer

Corning Incorporated; Village of Fairport (NY); On-site; USD 112,902 - 155,240; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Company-wide bonuses

100% company-paid pension benefit

Health and well-being benefits

Paid parental leave

Job summary

Corning Incorporated in the Village of Fairport is seeking an experienced optical design engineer to contribute to the design, analysis, and build of complex optical systems. This role involves working in multidisciplinary teams and requires proficiency in optical design software, as well as solid experience in the industry.

Ideal candidates should have a BS, MS, or PhD in Optics or Optical Engineering and a proven track record of at least 5 years in optical design. The position offers competitive compensation and comprehensive benefits.

Qualifications

• 5+ years of industry experience in optical design engineering.
• Experience with customer optics project requirements.
• Solid understanding of optical design principles.

Responsibilities

• Participate in early-stage discussions with customers.
• Develop lens design forms for complex optical systems.
• Analyze metrics to understand optical system performance.

Skills

Optical design software proficiency

Industry experience in optical design engineering

Communication skills

Understanding of optical manufacturing strategies

Education

BS, MS, or PhD in Optics or Optical Engineering

Tools

CODE V

Zemax

LightTools

FRED

Job description

Role Purpose

Corning Advanced Optics is seeking an experienced optical design engineer to join our team. This engineer will contribute to the design, analysis, tolerancing, and build of complex optical systems, working in multidisciplinary teams of engineers from concept development through hardware delivery.

Key Responsibilities

• Participate in early-stage discussions with customers and distill & translate customer requirements into concrete system specifications.
• Develop lens design forms for complex optical systems that meet these system specifications.
• Develop manufacturing tolerances and build strategies for these lens systems using custom sensitivity and tolerancing software.
• Collaborate with system metrology and controls engineers to develop appropriate measurement and optimization test benches.
• Provide optical design support to both prototype development and long-term manufacturing.
• Analyze the influential metrics to understand operational performance of an optical system.
• Plan and implement optical design processes to transfer the system to production.

Experiences/Education - Required

• BS, MS, or PhD in Optics, Optical Engineering, or a closely related field.
• 5+ years of industry experience in optical design engineering, working on the full life cycle of complex optical systems, from design concept to hardware delivery.
• Proficiency using commercial optical design software for the design, optimization, and analysis of imaging optical systems; experience with CODE V is preferred.
• Experience with distilling a complex set of customer optical system requirements into cohesive optical design specifications.
• Keen understanding of optical manufacturing strategies, sensitivity analysis, tolerancing, and fabrication methods.
• Familiarity with lens system performance metrics, including first‑order properties, wavefront error, resolution, distortion, polarization‑sensitive performance (transmission, retardance, and diattenuation), etc.
• Ability to communicate optical design concepts, tradeoffs, and technical details with a multi‑disciplinary team and with the customer.

Experiences/Education - Desired

• Experience supporting optical projects through concept design, engineering development, and hardware delivery.
• Knowledge of optical design principles for imaging and/or illumination systems.
• Familiarity with optical designs for illumination systems.
• Experience using a wide range of optical software analysis tools for both imaging and illumination systems, including CODE V, Zemax, LightTools, FRED, etc.
• Broad optical design experience in monochromatic and broadband lens systems operating in the UV and/or visible portions of the spectrum.
• Familiarity with refractive, reflective and catadioptric design forms.
• Macro development in CODE V, and data analysis and script development in MATLAB or Python.
• Solid background in mathematics (calculus and linear algebra) and in geometrical and physical optics, to be equipped to work with proprietary or novel performance metrics for our most challenging optical systems.

This position does not support immigration sponsorship.

The range for this position is $112,902.00 – $155,240.00 assuming full time status. Starting pay for the successful applicant is dependent on a variety of job‑related factors, including but not limited to geographic location, market demands, experience, training, and education.

Benefits

• Company‑wide bonuses and long‑term incentives aligned with key business results and ensure you are rewarded when the company performs well.
• 100% company‑paid pension benefit with fixed contributions that grow throughout your career; combined with matching contributions to your 401(k) savings plan, total contributions can reach between 7% and 12% of pay, depending on age and years of service.
• Health and well‑being benefits include medical, dental, vision, paid parental leave, family building support, fitness, company‑paid life insurance, disability, disease management programs, paid time off, and an Employee Assistance Program (EAP).
• Recognition program to celebrate successes and reward colleagues who make exceptional contributions.

We prohibit discrimination on the basis of race, color, gender, age, religion, national origin, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, disability, veteran status or any other legally protected status. Corning is committed to providing equal employment opportunities and considers requests for reasonable accommodations in accordance with applicable laws. Individuals with disabilities or sincerely held religious beliefs may request reasonable accommodations to participate in the application or interview process, perform essential job functions, or access other benefits and privileges of employment. To submit a request for reasonable accommodation related to disability or religion, please contact us at [e-mail].