{"id":1749624,"url":"https://alion.io/job/darwin-recruitment-founding-optical-engineer","title":"Founding Optical Engineer","company":{"id":2211481,"name":"Darwin Recruitment","domain":"darwinrecruitment.com","url":"https://alion.io/company/darwinrecruitment","size_band":null,"is_staffing_agency":false,"employer_type":"direct","is_intermediary":false,"listed_via":null,"ats_vendor":null,"truth_index":{"grade":"B","score":75,"open_postings":8,"ghost_share":0,"stale_share":1,"repost_share":0,"time_to_fill_p50_days":null,"computed_at":"2026-10-27T05:46:45Z"}},"role":"Industrial Engineering","role_family":"Industrial Engineering","seniority":null,"employment_type":"full_time","work_mode":"on_site","remote_scope":null,"remote_scope_basis":null,"remote_working_hours":null,"hiring_geo_confidence":"inferred","locations":[],"countries":[],"hiring_countries":[],"hiring_countries_total":0,"salary":null,"salary_estimate":null,"experience_years_min":null,"visa_sponsorship":false,"relocation_package":false,"has_equity":false,"technologies":[],"status":"live","first_seen_at":"2026-09-22T00:00:00Z","employer_posted_date":"2026-09-22","last_verified_at":"2026-10-03T16:17:12Z","board_verified":false,"closed_at":null,"days_open":35,"trust":{"level":"ok","repost_count":null,"flags":[],"days_open":35},"description":"Founding Optical Engineer, Lead Optical Systems\nPhoenix, Arizona or Marin County, San Francisco Bay Area\nThis 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.\nThey 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.\nThe next milestone is five ground sites around the world running on their own as the first autonomous network of optical ground stations.\nThe team is five people right now. You would be one of the first engineers in the building.\nWhat you will do\nOwn optical systems work from the lab bench through to deployed ground stations\nDesign, build, align and test optical hardware, and do whatever the system needs to get it working\nTurn early concepts into prototypes that hold up in the field\nHelp shape the optical architecture for ground and, later, deep space\nBuild the team underneath you over the next 6 to 12 months, so the work you start by doing yourself becomes work you lead\nWho this suits\nSomeone who loves being in the lab and is happiest with their hands on the hardware\nAn owner rather than a manager, who enjoys a spirited technical debate\nEither 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\nSomeone with room to grow toward heading optical systems as the company scales\nSomeone who genuinely wants the pace and ambiguity of a very early startup\nWhat you get\nReal 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.\nApply\nSend 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.\nDarwin Recruitment is acting as an Employment Agency in relation to this vacancy.\nAdam Slade","description_format":"text","description_chars":2279,"description_truncated":false,"requirements":{"experience_years_min":null,"management_years_min":null,"team_size_min":null,"manages_managers":false,"education":null,"security_clearance":false,"languages":[]},"benefits":["Equity"],"hiring_locations":[],"hiring_excludes":[],"relocation_offered":false,"industries":["Biotechnology","Recruiting & Staffing","Employer of Record & PEO"],"lifecycle":[{"event":"open","at":"2026-10-03T07:59:00Z"}],"visa":[],"liveness":{"score":12,"band":"cold","label":"Long shot","p_open":0.4,"p_active":0.645,"p_room":0.45,"age_days":35,"expected_fill_days":23,"reasons":["conf:565","urgency","velocity","win:tail","comp:brand"],"computed_at":"2026-10-27T05:46:45Z"},"pay":null,"html_url":"https://alion.io/job/darwin-recruitment-founding-optical-engineer","json_url":"https://alion.io/job/darwin-recruitment-founding-optical-engineer.json","meta":{"generated_at":"2026-10-27T14:28:05Z","cache_seconds":300,"methodology":"https://alion.io/methodology","terms":"https://alion.io/terms","contact":"https://alion.io/contact","api":"https://alion.io/developers","about":"Alion is a live layer of people, companies and AI agents: who they are, whether they are real and active right now, what they do and how to work with them, readable by people and by agents and paid per call.","catalog":"https://alion.io/catalog.json","usage":{"tier":"crawler_verified","counted_by":"address","units_charged":1,"used_today":3012,"day_limit":null,"remaining_today":null,"minute_limit":300,"resets_at":"2026-10-28T00:00:00Z"}},"offers":[{"id":"company.slices","title":"One company in depth, by slice","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.02,"usd":0.002,"plus_per_slice":{"credits":0.05,"usd":0.005}},"unit":"per company, plus each slice with data","note":"the employer in depth","call":{"mcp_tool":"get_company","arguments":{"id":2211481},"rest":"https://alion.io/mcp/rest/get_company?id=2211481"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.slices&for=job%2Fdarwin-recruitment-founding-optical-engineer"},{"id":"market.stats","title":"A market slice: pay, demand and time to fill","status":"live","price":{"credits":1,"usd":0.1},"unit":"per slice","note":"pay, demand and time to fill for this role and place","call":{"mcp_tool":"market_stats"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=market.stats&for=job%2Fdarwin-recruitment-founding-optical-engineer"},{"id":"job.search","title":"Open jobs by role, technology, place, pay and visa","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.02,"usd":0.002},"unit":"per posting in a list","note":"similar open postings","call":{"mcp_tool":"search_jobs"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=job.search&for=job%2Fdarwin-recruitment-founding-optical-engineer"},{"id":"company.verify","title":"Is this company real and active right now","status":"pilot","price":null,"unit":"per company","request":{"url":"https://alion.io/catalog/request","method":"POST","body":"{\"offer\": \"company.verify\", \"for\": \"job/darwin-recruitment-founding-optical-engineer\", \"note\": \"what you need it for\"}"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.verify&for=job%2Fdarwin-recruitment-founding-optical-engineer"}]}