Optical Engineer

K2 Space•Los Angeles, CA

About The Position

K2 is developing and operating its own spacecraft, enabling the design, testing, and deployment of ambitious optical payloads across various space environments (MEO, GEO, cislunar, and deep space) on accelerated timelines. The company is focused on creating value through space-based optical payloads for applications such as Earth observation (forest fire detection, climate monitoring) and planetary science (hyper-spectral imaging, laser-altimetry). This role involves contributing to a diverse payload portfolio, including specialty-fiber lasers, photonic systems, telescopes, focal-plane instrumentation, and compact free-space assemblies. The Optical Engineer will collaborate with senior engineers, gaining exposure to the entire lifecycle of an optical system, from initial analysis and risk reduction to manufacturing, ground testing, and on-orbit operations. The position requires innovation to meet aggressive development timelines and manufacturing scales, with full support from K2.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in optical engineering, physics, applied physics, electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, aerospace engineering, or a related technical field, or equivalent practical experience.
1+ years of relevant experience (internships, co-ops, academic research, student engineering teams, and substantial personal projects count).
Working knowledge of geometrical and physical optics.
Familiarity with common free-space optical, fiber-optic, and optomechanical components.

Nice To Haves

Hands-on experience building, aligning, testing, or troubleshooting an optical setup through industry, research, coursework, or independent projects.
Ability to navigate optical-vendor catalogs, select appropriate commercial components, and explain the technical basis for those selections.
Experience using Python, MATLAB, LabVIEW, or a similar environment for technical data analysis, image processing, simulation, or laboratory automation.
Strong technical communication skills and the ability to explain assumptions, evidence, uncertainty, failures, and proposed next steps.
Familiarity with optical design or analysis tools such as OpticStudio, CODE V, FRED, LightTools, Lumerical, or equivalent software.
Experience with detectors or focal-plane arrays, quantitative image processing, radiometry, optical calibration, or noise analysis.
Experience with precision optomechanics, CAD, optical mechanisms, lasers, integrated photonics, or specialty fibers.
Exposure to manufacturing-process development, measurement uncertainty, environmental testing, contamination control, or the failure modes of hardware in space environments.
Curiosity, sound engineering judgment, and a demonstrated ability to make independent progress on unfamiliar technical problems.

Responsibilities

Own well-bounded technical deliverables from problem definition through documented, validated results, such as custom optical components, fixtures, data analysis, test campaigns, manufacturing processes, or small optical assemblies.
Build, align, calibrate, automate, and maintain custom free-space and fiber-optic test systems, including optics-intensive hardware-in-the-loop infrastructure.
Plan and execute experiments to characterize optical components and assemblies, identify performance degradation mechanisms, and quantify their impact on system performance.
Develop optical models, performance budgets, tolerance analyses, and data-processing tools; correlate predictions with test results and translate findings into requirements, design changes, and recommended performance margins.
Design, specify, procure, and validate custom optics, optomechanical components, calibration hardware, fixtures, and test equipment.
Develop and qualify repeatable optical fabrication and assembly processes for high-volume production, including fiber splicing, adhesive bonding, alignment, cleaning, inspection, and testing.
Support environmental qualification, reliability testing, payload integration, flight-readiness activities, and on-orbit commissioning.
Troubleshoot anomalies and drive root-cause-based hardware or process changes.
Communicate technical work through design reviews, test plans and reports, drawings, specifications, procedures, and configuration-controlled data.