Senior Optical Engineer – Coherent Seeker & Laser Systems

Furientis; Los Angeles (CA); On-site; USD 150,000 - 210,000; Full time

Job summary

Furientis seeks an experienced Optical Engineer to own the coherent channel from source to detector. You will define transmitter specs, manage laser sources, and ensure the channel meets performance targets for a high-rate missile seeker system.

You will lead design and integration of optics, receivers, and signal chains, while coordinating with vendors and safety protocols to ship hardware capable of flight testing.

Qualifications

• B.S. in Optics, Photonics, Physics, or Electrical Engineering; M.S. or Ph.D. preferred.
• 5+ years of active EO work: ladar, interferometry, laser rangefinders, or free-space optical links.
• Laser source fluency: linewidth, coherence, modulation, and the failure modes of each.
• Pulsed lasers (Q-switched Er:glass and seeded MOPA transmitters) qualification.
• Design and integration of beam steering devices (Risley prisms, FSMs)
• Photodetector fluency at 1.5 µm: PIN and balanced receivers, APDs, SPADs
• Fiber and free-space bench craft: alignment and measurements
• Radiometry and link budget analysis from first principles
• Laser safety: ANSI Z136.1, NOHD
• Signal processing for channel from photocurrent to measurement
• Python or similar scripting
• Zemax design; stray-light analysis with FRED or TracePro

Responsibilities

• Architect active EO channels: source, modulation, transmit path, receiver, and detection.
• Own the link budget end to end and defend it against measured data.
• Write the channel side of the laser transmitter specification and ICD.
• Laser source selection and qualification, near term off-the-shelf transmitters, plus modulators and detectors, and manage vendor relationships.
• Characterize transmitters as channel components and verify acceptance at channel level.
• Design and build the coherent receiver: optical, electrical, and signal chain.
• Integrate the transmitter into the channel with trigger and synchronization; shared apertures and signs-off.
• Transition bench demonstrations to packaging for flight environment.
• Operate lasers safely and legally per NOHD and range safety.
• Deliver the coherent channel measurements into fusion/tracking stack with error models.

Skills

Active EO work

Ladar systems

Coherent optical links

Python scripting

Link-budget analysis

Beam steering systems

Optics alignment

Zemax design

Education

B.S. in Optics, Photonics, Physics, or Electrical Engineering

MS or PhD preferred

Tools

FRED

TracePro

LabVIEW

Job description

Furientis seeks an experienced Optical Engineer to own the coherent channel from source to detector. You will define transmitter specs, manage laser sources, and ensure the channel meets performance targets for a high-rate missile seeker system.

You will lead design and integration of optics, receivers, and signal chains, while coordinating with vendors and safety protocols to ship hardware capable of flight testing.