Electromechanical Packaging Engineer III - Electro-Optical Components

Blue Origin•Littleton, CO

16h

About The Position

Blue Origin is hiring a senior technical contributor to own ruggedized electro-optical packaging for spacecraft and national security programs. The role covers mechanical design of modem processing and photonics units, electro-optic assemblies, transceiver hardware, optical amplifier assemblies, and their chassis and stacked-unit architectures, from requirements through production support and flight release. The hardware must maintain thermal stability and precise optical interfaces while withstanding launch and on-orbit environments, including temperature extremes, vibration, shock, radiation, and vacuum. The position supports classified programs; candidates must be eligible to obtain and maintain a U.S. government security clearance. An existing clearance is preferred but not required, and Blue Origin may sponsor a suitable candidate. The engineer owns mechanical and thermal packaging, heat-rejection paths and thermal control of temperature-sensitive photonics, internal fiber management, and mechanical interfaces to optical payloads and host spacecraft. They collaborate closely with electrical engineers, PCB designers, harness designers, thermal specialists, suppliers, and other spacecraft engineering teams. As the senior technical voice for electro-optical packaging, the engineer sets design standards, analysis methods, and process baselines, mentors engineers, leads reviews, and supports production, integration, and environmental qualification. Work must comply with applicable security requirements and protect classified information and controlled technical data.

Requirements

B.S. in Mechanical, Aerospace, Optical, or Photonics Engineering, or a related discipline.
3 to 5+ years designing electromechanical or electro-optical assemblies, electronics or photonics packaging, or comparable high-reliability hardware, with experience owning designs from requirements through production.
Hands-on experience packaging electro-optical hardware such as optical modems, transceivers, optical amplifier assemblies, photonic devices, lasers or detectors, or fiber-optic assemblies, including associated thermal, optical-interface, and contamination challenges.
Experience designing fiber management within constrained enclosures, including tray layout, routing, bend-radius and strain-relief strategy, splice retention, and connector selection.
Experience with thermal management of temperature-sensitive photonics, including TEC integration and thermal isolation.
Experience integrating PCBAs, connectors, and cable or fiber interfaces into mechanical assemblies, and collaborating with electrical engineers and PCB designers on dense, high-reliability boards, including layout reviews and influencing component selection before layout lock.
Experience specifying mechanical and installation requirements for electrical harnesses.
Knowledge of ruggedized electronics and photonics design, including thermal management, structural protection, vibration and shock survival, vacuum compatibility, and EMI/EMC shielding, and experience conducting or directing supporting analyses.
Ability to define mechanical and thermal interfaces and requirements for hosted hardware and negotiate with owners of adjacent optical, structural, and payload hardware.
Strong 3D CAD skills; Creo/Pro-E is a plus.
Command of GD&T, tolerance stack-ups, and ASME Y14.5 drawing practice.
Eligibility to obtain and maintain a U.S. government security clearance.
Comfort working in a fast-moving program with evolving requirements and open trades, including sound judgment when inputs are not final and the ability to communicate technical risk.

Nice To Haves

Active U.S. government security clearance.
M.S. in a relevant discipline.
Experience with optical communications hardware, including coherent or IM-DD transceivers, silicon photonics, optical modems, optical amplifiers, or pluggable form factors.
Experience building modems, transceivers, or optical terminal electronics to SIS-002, OpenZR+, SDA optical communications terminal standards, or CCSDS optical standards, and understanding how standards changes affect mechanical and thermal design.
Working knowledge of laser communications terminal architecture and coherent link building blocks, such as integrated coherent receivers, modulators, tunable sources, and amplifiers, and their mechanical and thermal needs.
Experience developing hosted payloads or line-replaceable units against a spacecraft bus interface specification.
Familiarity with spacecraft environmental specifications and qualification tailoring, such as NASA GEVS and SMC-S-016, including payload isolation to reconcile hardware capability with host environments.
Experience maturing prototypes into producible, qualifiable flight products, including reconstructing design documentation for hardware not originally designed by the candidate.
Fiber-optic expertise in splicing, connector and termini selection (MIL-PRF-29504, ARINC 801), cleaning and inspection practice (IPC-8497-1), link-loss budgeting, and familiarity with IPC-A-620 and J-STD-001.
Experience with photonic and semiconductor assembly processes such as die attach, wire bond, flip chip, hermetic sealing, and fiber alignment.
Analysis experience in electronics thermal, structural, vibration, shock, or fatigue work, including solder-fatigue methods such as Steinberg or Engelmaier and FEA/thermal simulation using ANSYS or FloTHERM.
Hands-on familiarity with ECAD tools such as Altium or Mentor xPedition and PLM tools such as Windchill.
Familiarity with qualification and reliability standards such as Telcordia GR-468-CORE and GR-1221, MIL-STD-883, MIL-STD-1678, or JEDEC.
Experience with radiation-tolerant part selection and contamination control for space optics, including outgassing screening per ASTM E595.
Background in spacecraft, national-security space, human spaceflight, launch vehicle, or other extreme-environment hardware, ideally for long-duration or high-radiation missions beyond LEO.
Track record of mentoring engineers and building new design or analysis capability on a team.

Responsibilities

Own complex packaging assemblies—including enclosures, chassis, card-cage and stacked-unit architectures, mounting systems, and fiber junction housings—from requirements through production support.
Lead mechanical and thermal design of modem processing and photonics units, integrating high-speed digital boards, photonics boards, electro-optic daughter cards, and power conversion slices into flight-qualifiable, mass- and volume-efficient packages.
Package optical amplifier and transceiver-class hardware, addressing optical power handling, fiber end-face reliability, hermeticity, and moisture control.
Own thermal design with thermal engineering, including heat-rejection paths, mounting materials, heater placement, thermal isolation, and thermal control of tunable lasers, modulators, and TEC-cooled devices.
Design fiber-optic trays and internal fiber management, including layout, routing, bend-radius control, strain relief, splice retention, and connector selection; define splicing and workmanship processes and specify required equipment.
Define mechanical and installation requirements for electrical harnesses and carry them through detailed design with harness designers.
Collaborate with electrical engineers and PCB designers from architecture through layout, fabrication, and test; coordinate ECAD/MCAD co-design of board outlines, component placement, heat sources, and connectors, and advise on component and BOM choices where mechanical or thermal factors matter.
Define board-level protection and workmanship, including staking, conformal coating, bonding, and component restraint for vibration and shock.
Drive thermal, structural, vibration, shock, and fatigue analyses; own tolerance stack-ups and thermo-elastic stability budgets that protect optical interfaces and coupling efficiency.
Lead trade studies balancing mass, thermal and structural performance, EMI/EMC, manufacturability, cost, schedule, and risk.
Own mechanical, thermal, environmental, EMC, mass, and envelope requirements; decompose host requirements into verifiable requirements, maintain traceability, report mass properties, and negotiate host-vehicle accommodation and interfaces.
Quantify and close gaps when hardware qualified to one standard must meet a different host specification.
Deliver models, drawings, specifications, release packages, and mechanical and thermal ICDs; apply GD&T per ASME Y14.5.
Address contamination control, outgassing, hermeticity, and radiation-induced fiber attenuation, and support radiation and reliability teams with part selection and long-lead procurement.
Design for production using DFM/DFA; specify fiber and optical assembly processes and work with fabrication and assembly suppliers on producibility.
Own test and integration support, including fixtures and optical loopback setups, and shape environmental test campaigns from planning through anomaly closeout.
Mentor engineers, lead design reviews, and build team capability in electro-optical packaging.
Perform work in accordance with applicable security requirements, protecting classified information and controlled technical data.

Benefits

Medical insurance
Dental insurance
Vision insurance
Basic and supplemental life insurance
Paid parental leave
Short- and long-term disability
401(k) with company match of up to 5%
Education Support Program
Stock options for regular employees working at least 20 hours per week
Paid time off of up to four weeks per year based on weekly scheduled hours
Up to 14 company-paid holidays
Depending on role type and job level, potential eligibility for benefits and bonuses based on individual contributions and company results