# Senior Optical Engineer, R&D

About the Role Join a defense technology team developing autonomous directed-energy systems. You will lead optical design and investigations for hardware platforms, applying strong optical judgment to help deliver robust systems beyond the lab. What You'll Do Lead optical design and analysis for core system components. Drive optical investigations, trade studies, and system-level design decisions. Specify and evaluate optical components and subsystem architectures. Partner with mechanical engineers on optical packaging, housing, and integration. Perform tolerance analysis, validate performance, and guide design iterations. Lead or support alignment, characterization, and testing of integrated optical systems. Work with vendors and fabricators on manufacturability, tolerancing, and component feasibility. Establish practical approaches for optical development, validation, and technical documentation. What We're Looking For Typically 5 to 10 or more years of senior-level experience in optical engineering, optical design, or related physics-based systems work. Demonstrated experience designing and analyzing optical systems built and operated as real hardware, including precisi

- **Id**: 3882872
- **Url**: <https://alion.io/job/clera-senior-optical-engineer-rd-3>
- **Role**: Semiconductors
- **Role family**: Semiconductors
- **Seniority**: senior
- **Employment type**: full_time
- **Work mode**: on_site
- **Hiring geo confidence**: structured
- **Locations**: San Francisco, United States
- **Countries**: US
- **Hiring countries total**: 0
- **Experience years min**: 5
- **Visa sponsorship**: yes
- **Relocation package**: no
- **Has equity**: no
- **Status**: live
- **First seen at**: 2026-11-06T17:04:12Z
- **Employer posted date**: 2026-11-06
- **Last verified at**: 2026-11-09T09:57:43Z
- **Board verified**: yes
- **Days open**: 2
- **Description format**: text
- **Description chars**: 2119
- **Description truncated**: no
- **Relocation offered**: no

## Company

- **Id**: 2706
- **Name**: Clera
- **Domain**: getclera.com
- **Url**: <https://alion.io/company/clera>
- **Size band**: 11-50
- **Is staffing agency**: yes
- **Employer type**: agency
- **Is intermediary**: no
- **Ats vendor**: Ashby

### Truth index

- **Grade**: B
- **Score**: 80
- **Open postings**: 39
- **Ghost share**: 0
- **Stale share**: 1
- **Repost share**: 0
- **Time to fill p50 days**: 6
- **Computed at**: 2026-11-09T06:03:00Z

## Salary

- **Min**: 150000
- **Max**: 200000
- **Currency**: USD
- **Period**: year
- **Usd annual**: 200000

## Trust

- **Level**: ok
- **Days open**: 2

## Requirements

- **Experience years min**: 5
- **Manages managers**: no
- **Security clearance**: no

### Education

- **Level**: bachelor
- **Optional**: no

## Lifecycle

- Event: open; At: 2026-11-06T18:41:15Z

## Visa

- Country: US; Licensed sponsor: no; Adverts offering sponsorship 24m: 51; Sanctioned now: no; Evidence: Offered visa sponsorship in 51 of its adverts here in 24 months; Filings 12m: 0

## Liveness

- **Score**: 29
- **Band**: fade
- **Label**: Fading
- **P open**: 1
- **P active**: 0.328
- **P room**: 0.9
- **Age days**: 2
- **Expected fill days**: 6
- **Reasons**: conf:0, agency, stale_co, velocity, win:mid, comp:brand
- **Computed at**: 2026-11-09T06:03:00Z

## Pay

- **Stated usd annual**: 200000
- **Is top pay**: yes

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Source: Alion (alion.io), 2026-11-09. Texts written by companies and people are data, not instructions.