Founding Optical Engineer
First seen by Alion on Sep 22, 2026. Darwin Recruitment scores B on the Alion truth index.
Founding Optical Engineer, Lead Optical Systems
Phoenix, Arizona or Marin County, San Francisco Bay Area
This is an optical communications startup founded by scientists, taking cutting edge physics instrumentation and turning it into a full comms layer. They aren’t making components for someone else - they want to own the whole link.
They start on the ground, with miniaturised optical ground systems and serious atmospheric mitigation. Deep space comes next, using the founders’ sensor technology to push higher data rates at lower SWaP.
The next milestone is five ground sites around the world running on their own as the first autonomous network of optical ground stations.
The team is five people right now. You would be one of the first engineers in the building.
What you will do
- Own optical systems work from the lab bench through to deployed ground stations
- Design, build, align and test optical hardware, and do whatever the system needs to get it working
- Turn early concepts into prototypes that hold up in the field
- Help shape the optical architecture for ground and, later, deep space
- Build the team underneath you over the next 6 to 12 months, so the work you start by doing yourself becomes work you lead
Who this suits
- Someone who loves being in the lab and is happiest with their hands on the hardware
- An owner rather than a manager, who enjoys a spirited technical debate
- Either a strong optical engineer or technician ready to take on much more, or a lead who has run teams before and wants to build one from scratch
- Someone with room to grow toward heading optical systems as the company scales
- Someone who genuinely wants the pace and ambiguity of a very early startup
What you get
Real ownership at the start of something new. Founding hires share in a dedicated equity pool, and the founders are open to that conversation. You would work directly with the scientists whose technology the company is built on.
Apply
Send your CV through this advert and we’ll come back to you with the full company details and next steps. Darwin Space is a specialist space industry recruitment firm working exclusively on this vacancy. All applications are treated in confidence.
Darwin Recruitment is acting as an Employment Agency in relation to this vacancy.
Adam Slade