Space Optics Engineer for High-Power Satellites

K2 Space Corporation; Los Angeles (CA); Hybrid; USD 110,000 - 200,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Equity in company

On-site at Torrance HQ

Comprehensive benefits

Job summary

K2 Space Corporation is recruiting an Optical Engineer to contribute to a payload portfolio spanning specialty-fiber lasers, diffraction-limited telescopes, and focal-plane instrumentation. You will work with senior engineers through the full lifecycle—from analysis to on-orbit operation—on high-power satellite optics.

Join a high-growth space tech company with ambitious timelines, and help develop optical hardware and test infrastructure for space missions across MEO, GEO, and deep space.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in optical engineering, physics, applied physics, electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, aerospace engineering, or a related technical field, or equivalent practical experience.
• 1+ years of relevant experience. Internships, co-ops, academic research, student engineering teams, and substantial personal projects count toward this requirement.
• Working knowledge of geometrical and physical optics and familiarity with common free-space optical, fiber-optic, and optomechanical components.

Responsibilities

• Own well-bounded technical deliverables from problem definition through documented, validated results.
• Build, align, calibrate, automate, and maintain custom free-space and fiber-optic test systems, including optics-intensive hardware-in-the-loop infrastructure.
• Plan and execute experiments that characterize optical components and assemblies, isolate performance-degradation mechanisms, and quantify their effect on end-to-end system performance.
• Develop optical models, performance budgets, tolerance analyses, and data-processing tools; correlate predictions with test results and translate findings into requirements, design changes, and recommended performance margins.
• Design, specify, procure, and validate custom optics, optomechanical components, calibration hardware, fixtures, and test equipment.
• Develop and qualify repeatable optical fabrication and assembly processes for high volume production, including fiber splicing, adhesive bonding, alignment, cleaning, inspection, and test.
• Support environmental qualification, reliability testing, payload integration, flight-readiness activities, and on-orbit commissioning. Troubleshoot anomalies and help drive root-cause-based hardware or process changes.
• Communicate technical work through design reviews, test plans and reports, drawings, specifications, procedures, and configuration-controlled data.

Skills

Geometrical optics

Physical optics

Optomechanical components

Python

MATLAB

Data analysis

Technical communication

Education

Bachelor’s degree in optical engineering

Equivalent practical experience

Tools

OpticStudio

CODE V

FRED

LightTools

Lumerical

CAD

Job description

K2 Space Corporation is recruiting an Optical Engineer to contribute to a payload portfolio spanning specialty-fiber lasers, diffraction-limited telescopes, and focal-plane instrumentation. You will work with senior engineers through the full lifecycle—from analysis to on-orbit operation—on high-power satellite optics.

Join a high-growth space tech company with ambitious timelines, and help develop optical hardware and test infrastructure for space missions across MEO, GEO, and deep space.