{"id":4036468,"url":"https://alion.io/job/star-catcher-optical-engineer-beam-expander-optical-systems-design","title":"Optical Engineer - Beam Expander & Optical Systems Design","company":{"id":1906176,"name":"Star Catcher","domain":"star-catcher.com","url":"https://alion.io/company/star-catcher","size_band":"51-200","is_staffing_agency":false,"employer_type":"direct","is_intermediary":false,"listed_via":null,"ats_vendor":"Greenhouse","truth_index":null},"role":"Semiconductors","role_family":"Semiconductors","seniority":"middle","employment_type":null,"work_mode":"on_site","remote_scope":null,"remote_scope_basis":null,"remote_working_hours":null,"hiring_geo_confidence":"structured","locations":["Jacksonville, United States"],"countries":["US"],"hiring_countries":[],"hiring_countries_total":0,"salary":null,"salary_estimate":null,"experience_years_min":3,"visa_sponsorship":false,"relocation_package":false,"has_equity":false,"technologies":[{"name":"MATLAB","optional":true},{"name":"Python","optional":true}],"status":"live","first_seen_at":"2026-11-10T19:21:32Z","employer_posted_date":"2026-11-10","last_verified_at":"2026-11-11T06:11:37Z","board_verified":true,"closed_at":null,"days_open":0,"trust":{"level":"ok","repost_count":null,"flags":[],"days_open":0},"description":"Power the future of Space at Star Catcher\nStar Catcher is building the first energy grid in space to power the orbital economy.\nToday’s spacecraft must generate all of their own power, which caps what they can do and how long they can operate. But what if they could “plug” into a grid, the way buildings do on Earth? Instead of cables and outlets, Star Catcher is building the technology to wirelessly beam energy to spacecraft’s existing solar panels when and where they need it.\nBe an early member of a team building an entirely new energy infrastructure at scale to power the next frontier.\nStar Catcher Industries, Inc., located in Jacksonville, Florida, has an opportunity for an Optical Engineer - Beam Expander & Optical Systems Design to support the development of space-to-space power beaming spacecraft and the Star Catcher Network, its orbital power grid. \nKey Responsibilities\nDesign reflective beam expanders for space-based laser applications under the technical direction of the designated optical design lead.\nPerform optical design, optimization, and tolerancing in Zemax OpticStudio or CODE V to satisfy beam diameter, divergence, wavefront quality, and pointing-range requirements.\nModel beam propagation from the laser source to the target, including Gaussian/M² effects, truncation, obscuration, and the impact of wavefront error on far-field irradiance.\nBuild top-level beam-propagation WFE budgets, decompose them into finer line items, and track predicted versus measured performance.\nProduce optical component specifications, drawings, and BOMs; support vendor selection, procurement, and incoming inspection.\nWork with opto-mechanical and thermal engineers on mounts, thermal sensitivity, and STOP analysis inputs.\nSupport assembly, alignment, and test of beam-expander hardware, including hands-on laser alignment in the lab.\nAddress high-power considerations in the design, including coatings, LIDT, back-reflections, ghost foci, and stray light.\nDocument designs, analyses, and test results for design reviews.\nBasic Qualifications\nEducation: Bachelor's degree in Optical Engineering, Optics, Physics, or a related technical discipline.\nExperience: 3+ years of optical design or laser-system experience; candidates with plenty of design experience are preferred.\nTechnical Expertise\nProficiency in Zemax OpticStudio or CODE V, including sequential design, optimization, and tolerancing.\nSolid understanding of first-order optics, reflective and afocal systems, and third-order aberrations.\nWorking knowledge of Gaussian beam propagation, M², and diffraction.\nHands-on experience aligning optics for laser systems, including beam steering, collimation, and beam expansion.\nFamiliarity with interferometric measurement and WFE metrics (RMS, peak-to-valley, Zernike terms, Strehl ratio).\nPreferred Qualifications\nHigh-Power Lasers: Experience with optics for kW-class lasers.\nPhysical Optics: Physical optics propagation in Zemax, or wave-optics models in Python or MATLAB.\nSpace Hardware: Experience with flight optics or environmental testing.\nProgramming: Python or MATLAB for analysis automation.\nAdvanced Degrees: Master's degree in Optical Sciences, Optical Engineering, or Physics.\nHelp us deploy and scale space infrastructure that will drive our utilization of space forward! We offer a highly competitive benefits package including access to comprehensive medical, dental, and vision coverage, 401(k) retirement plan, life insurance, and paid parental leave, in addition to other benefits.\nStar Catcher is an Equal Opportunity Employer; employment with Star Catcher is governed on the basis of merit, competence and qualifications and will not be influenced in any manner by race, color, religion, gender, national origin/ethnicity, veteran status, disability status, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, mental or physical disability or any other legally protected status.\nAll offers of employment at Star Catcher are contingent upon results of a thorough background check and your ability to provide proof of eligibility to work in the US.\nTo conform to U.S. Government space technology export regulations, including the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) you must be a U.S. citizen, lawful permanent resident of the U.S., protected individual as defined by 8 U.S.C. 1324b(a)(3), or eligible to obtain the required authorizations from the U.S. Department of State.","description_format":"text","description_chars":4438,"description_truncated":false,"requirements":{"experience_years_min":3,"management_years_min":null,"team_size_min":null,"manages_managers":false,"education":{"level":"bachelor","optional":false},"security_clearance":true,"languages":[]},"benefits":["Life insurance","Parental leave","Retirement plans"],"hiring_locations":[{"name":"United States","iso":"US","kind":"country"}],"hiring_excludes":[],"relocation_offered":false,"industries":["Space Services"],"lifecycle":[{"event":"open","at":"2026-11-10T20:29:54Z"}],"visa":[],"liveness":{"score":86,"band":"hot","label":"Hiring now","p_open":1,"p_active":0.86,"p_room":1,"age_days":0,"expected_fill_days":30,"reasons":["conf:4","win:early"],"computed_at":"2026-11-11T05:49:22Z"},"pay":null,"html_url":"https://alion.io/job/star-catcher-optical-engineer-beam-expander-optical-systems-design","json_url":"https://alion.io/job/star-catcher-optical-engineer-beam-expander-optical-systems-design.json","meta":{"generated_at":"2026-11-11T10:29:14Z","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":17944,"day_limit":null,"remaining_today":null,"minute_limit":300,"resets_at":"2026-11-12T00:00:00Z"}},"offers":[{"id":"company.slices","title":"One company in depth, by slice","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.1,"usd":0.01,"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":1906176},"rest":"https://alion.io/mcp/rest/get_company?id=1906176"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.slices&for=job%2Fstar-catcher-optical-engineer-beam-expander-optical-systems-design"},{"id":"market.stats","title":"A market slice: pay, demand and time to fill","status":"live","price":{"credits":2,"usd":0.2},"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%2Fstar-catcher-optical-engineer-beam-expander-optical-systems-design"},{"id":"job.search","title":"Open jobs by role, technology, place, pay and visa","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.1,"usd":0.01},"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%2Fstar-catcher-optical-engineer-beam-expander-optical-systems-design"},{"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/star-catcher-optical-engineer-beam-expander-optical-systems-design\", \"note\": \"what you need it for\"}"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.verify&for=job%2Fstar-catcher-optical-engineer-beam-expander-optical-systems-design"}],"agent":{"mcp":"https://alion.io/mcp/jobs","mcp_open":"https://alion.io/mcp/open","next":[{"tool":"get_job","arguments":{"id":4036468}},{"tool":"search_jobs","arguments":{"company":"star-catcher.com","detail":"compact"}},{"tool":"match_people","arguments":{"job_id":4036468},"note":"people open to offers who fit this vacancy"}],"note":"The same data through MCP tools: https://alion.io/mcp/open needs no sign-in (compact searches, postings, people); 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