{"id":2551626,"url":"https://alion.io/job/lockheed-martin-optical-engineer-staff","title":"Optical Engineer Staff","company":{"id":37086,"name":"Lockheed Martin","domain":"lockheedmartin.com","url":"https://alion.io/company/lockheedmartin","size_band":"5000+","is_staffing_agency":false,"employer_type":"direct","is_intermediary":false,"listed_via":null,"ats_vendor":"Eightfold","truth_index":{"grade":"A","score":99,"open_postings":119,"ghost_share":0,"stale_share":0,"repost_share":0.05,"time_to_fill_p50_days":28,"computed_at":"2026-10-14T06:34:16Z"}},"role":"Industrial Engineering","role_family":"Industrial Engineering","seniority":"staff","employment_type":null,"work_mode":"on_site","remote_scope":null,"remote_scope_basis":null,"remote_working_hours":null,"hiring_geo_confidence":"structured","locations":["Louisville, United States"],"countries":["US"],"hiring_countries":[],"hiring_countries_total":0,"salary":{"min":135700,"max":251900,"currency":"USD","period":"year","gross":null,"usd_annual":251900},"salary_estimate":null,"experience_years_min":5,"visa_sponsorship":false,"relocation_package":false,"has_equity":false,"technologies":[{"name":"MATLAB","optional":true},{"name":"Python","optional":true}],"status":"live","first_seen_at":"2026-10-13T15:40:00Z","employer_posted_date":"2026-10-14","last_verified_at":"2026-10-14T21:54:01Z","board_verified":true,"closed_at":null,"days_open":1,"trust":{"level":"ok","repost_count":null,"flags":[],"days_open":1},"description":"Standard Job Description\nWe are seeking an experienced Optical Engineer to develop, integrate, and test laser and electro-optical systems, primarily for space applications. You will independently lead optical design and modeling work, lead or support hands-on optical alignment, integration, and test, and collaborate across engineering disciplines to take hardware from design through verification. You will use your own engineering judgment to make key technical decisions with minimal direction, develop innovative solutions to complex optical problems, guide your assigned technical work to completion, and work closely with senior engineers, program leadership, and customers on significant technical matters.\nLaser systems experience is required. Beyond that, we welcome candidates whose strengths lean toward design and modeling or toward hands-on integration and test, and we do not expect experience in every area listed below. Imaging systems and space flight experience are a plus.\nResponsibilities:\nDevelop and evaluate optical designs for laser and electro-optical systems, including refractive, reflective, and catadioptric designs, from concept trades through detailed design.\nBuild optical models to predict system performance against requirements (e.g., beam propagation and beam quality for laser systems; image quality and radiometry for imaging systems).\nLead optical assembly, integration, and test (AI&T) for prototype and flight hardware, from alignment and test procedures through environmental testing.\nCharacterize optical performance (e.g., beam profile, M², pointing, and power for laser systems; wavefront and MTF for imaging systems) and correlate measurements with model predictions.\nTroubleshoot optical performance anomalies in prototype and flight hardware, lead root-cause investigations, and recommend corrective design or process changes.\nDerive optical requirements from system-level needs and allocate performance and tolerances through optical error budgets (e.g., wavefront error, pointing, boresight, throughput).\nAnalyze tolerances, sensitivities, and structural-thermal effects on optical performance (STOP), working with structural and thermal analysts, to guide fabrication, alignment, and integration.\nDevelop optical component specifications (including coating and laser damage threshold requirements) and support procurement and vendor acceptance.\nCollaborate with systems, laser, mechanical, thermal, stray light, manufacturing, and test engineers to resolve optical interfaces and performance issues and to ensure designs are producible and testable.\nCommunicate technical findings and recommendations through analyses, internal and customer design reviews, and test reports.\nContribute to the development of new concepts, technology development efforts, and proposals by identifying innovative optical solutions.\nProvide peer review and mentoring as appropriate while maintaining ownership of assigned technical work.\nBasic Qualifications\nGenerally 5 or more years of related optical engineering experience.\nExperience designing, modeling, integrating, or testing laser optical systems (e.g., beam propagation, beam delivery or shaping, fiber or free-space coupling).\nWorking knowledge of geometrical and physical optics, radiometry, and optical quality metrics (e.g., M² and wavefront error for laser systems, or MTF and encircled energy for imaging systems).\nProficiency with Zemax OpticStudio or CODE V for optical design, analysis, and tolerancing.\nExperience performing engineering analysis and evaluating model or test data (e.g., using MATLAB, Python, or equivalent tools).\nExperience communicating technical results through written documentation and design review presentations.\nU.S. citizenship and the ability to obtain and maintain a TS/SCI security clearance.\nDesired Skills\nBachelor's degree in optical engineering, physics, or related field; or equivalent combination of education and experience.\nActive Top Secret/SCI clearance, or active Top Secret clearance with eligibility for SCI or other required compartmented access.\nExperience leading optical AI&T of laser or electro-optical hardware, including alignment and environmental testing (e.g., vibration, thermal vacuum).\nExperience developing optics or optical hardware for space flight.\nHands-on optical test experience (e.g., beam profiling, M², and power/energy for laser systems; interferometry and MTF for imaging systems), including troubleshooting measured performance.\nExperience with non-sequential and physical optics modeling (e.g., Zemax OpticStudio, FRED) for beam propagation, diffraction, ghost, or scatter analysis.\nExperience with high-power laser optics considerations, such as laser-induced damage threshold, contamination control, or thermal effects (e.g., thermal lensing).\nExperience applying tolerance, sensitivity, and structural-thermal-optical performance (STOP) analyses to hardware decisions.\nUnderstanding of stray light, ghost, and backscatter mitigation techniques (e.g., baffles, stops, coatings, tilted surfaces) and experience working with stray light analysts to implement design changes.\nExperience developing optical error budgets, radiometric or sensor performance models, or link budgets.\nExperience writing optical component specifications or statements of work, including optical material and coating selection, and working with optical vendors.\nProficient in AI prompting as it applies to this position and practice \nPay Information\nFull-Time Salary Range: $135700.00 - $251900.00\nAt Lockheed Martin, we know mission success starts with taking care of our people. Our Total Rewards program is designed to attract top talent, support your well-being, and help you grow-both professionally and personally.\nThe salary range for this position is as listed on the requisition. Please note that the salary information listed is a general guideline only. Lockheed Martin considers factors such as (but not limited to) scope and responsibilities of the position, candidate's work experience, education/ training, key skills as well as market(work location) and business considerations when extending an offer.\nBenefits offered: Medical, Dental, Vision, Flexible work arrangements and schedules (e.g., 4x10), 401(k) match, Paid time off, Holidays, Parental Leave, EAP, Flexible Spending Accounts, Education Assistance, Life Insurance, Short-Term Disability, and Long-Term Disability.\nAnnual short-term and/or long-term incentive compensation programs may be offered depending on the position. Payments under these annual programs are not guaranteed and can vary from year to year and are tied to a range of performance metrics.\nFor (Washington state applicants only) Non-represented full-time employees: accrue at least 10 hours per month of Paid Time Off (PTO) to be used for incidental absences and other reasons; receive at least 90 hours for holidays. Represented full time employees accrue 6.67 hours of Vacation per month; accrue up to 52 hours of sick leave annually; receive at least 96 hours for holidays. PTO, Vacation, sick leave, and holiday hours are prorated based on start date during the calendar year.","description_format":"text","description_chars":7173,"description_truncated":false,"requirements":{"experience_years_min":5,"management_years_min":null,"team_size_min":null,"manages_managers":false,"education":{"level":"bachelor","optional":true},"security_clearance":true,"languages":[]},"benefits":["Education assistance","Flexible schedule","Life insurance","Parental leave"],"hiring_locations":[],"hiring_excludes":[],"relocation_offered":false,"industries":["Aerospace Manufacturing","Combat Aircraft","Missiles","Military Satellites"],"lifecycle":[{"event":"open","at":"2026-10-14T18:08:10Z"}],"visa":[{"country":"US","licensed_sponsor":true,"evidence":"H-1B filings in 12 months: 1","filings_12m":1,"filings_prev_12m":1,"green_card_filings_12m":0,"median_offered_wage_usd":182500,"route":null,"cap_exempt":false,"checked_at":"2026-10-03T21:08:04+00:00","sources":["US Department of Labor: LCA disclosure data (H-1B, H-1B1, E-3)"],"filings_for_role_12m":0}],"liveness":{"score":86,"band":"hot","label":"Hiring now","p_open":1,"p_active":0.86,"p_room":1,"age_days":1,"expected_fill_days":28,"reasons":["conf:3","win:early","comp:brand"],"computed_at":"2026-10-15T01:06:48Z"},"pay":{"stated_usd_annual":251900,"is_top_pay":true},"html_url":"https://alion.io/job/lockheed-martin-optical-engineer-staff","json_url":"https://alion.io/job/lockheed-martin-optical-engineer-staff.json","meta":{"generated_at":"2026-10-15T01:06:48Z","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":1340,"day_limit":null,"remaining_today":null,"minute_limit":300,"resets_at":"2026-10-16T00:00:00Z"}},"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":37086},"rest":"https://alion.io/mcp/rest/get_company?id=37086"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.slices&for=job%2Flockheed-martin-optical-engineer-staff"},{"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%2Flockheed-martin-optical-engineer-staff"},{"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%2Flockheed-martin-optical-engineer-staff"},{"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/lockheed-martin-optical-engineer-staff\", \"note\": \"what you need it for\"}"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.verify&for=job%2Flockheed-martin-optical-engineer-staff"}]}