Optomechanical Engineer - R&D

Aurelius Systems•San Francisco, CA

21d•Onsite

About The Position

Aurelius Systems is a VC-backed defense tech startup building autonomous, edge-deployed robotics systems using directed energy for counter-UAS. We build laser weapons to shoot down drones. We're a small team of ~10 engineers, former US military operators, and subject matter experts scaling America's directed energy dominance. The first cost effective, reliable and robust laser weapon system. Our namesake isn't an accident. Marcus Aurelius wrote about doing the work in front of you, every day, without excuses. Henry Ford didn't wait for permission to reinvent manufacturing. That's how we operate; small team, unreasonable output, no hiding behind the unachievable. In addition to our San Francisco lab/office, we opened our Detroit manufacturing hub and we field test weekly on our own 400-acre private range. If you are the kind of engineer who'd rather see your work on a range than in a lab, read on. You'll own the optical subsystem that gets our laser from the source to the target. That means designing, building, and validating the precision hardware and optical components from lenses, mirrors, beam shaping optics, mounts, to housings. You that make a multi-kilowatt laser system work in the field, not just in a lab. You will be taking designs from Zemax to hardware, aligning them on the bench, and standing behind them when they go downrange. This role sits at the intersection of optics and mechanical engineering. You'll work directly alongside our hardware team on source integration and our mechanical and electrical teams on system level packaging. When the beam quality degrades at a range test, you're the one who knows why and has a solution before the day is over.

Requirements

2–5+ years in optomechanical or optical engineering with real hardware experience
Proficiency in Zemax OpticStudio for optical design and tolerance analysis
Hands-on optical alignment and characterization experience — you've built and tuned real systems, not just modeled them
Mechanical design experience in CAD (SolidWorks preferred) for opto-mechanical mounts, housings, and assemblies
Understanding of thermal and structural effects on optical performance
Familiarity with high-power laser optics — damage thresholds, coating selection, thermal lensing
Comfortable working across mechanical, electrical, and laser teams to integrate optical subsystems

Nice To Haves

Experience with fast steering mirrors or beam steering systems for high speed pointing and tracking applications
Experience with high-power CW laser beam delivery or directed energy systems
Background in beam steering, fast steering mirrors, or pointing and tracking systems
Familiarity with MIL-STD standards and ITAR compliance
Experience with environmental, vibration, or shock testing of optical assemblies
Active security clearance or ability to obtain one

Responsibilities

Design and build precision optical assemblies for a high-power directed energy system — beam expanders, fold mirrors, focusing optics, and delivery components
Execute opto-mechanical tolerance analysis and use Zemax to validate designs before committing to hardware
Select, specify, and qualify optical components (lenses, mirrors, coatings, windows) for high-power CW laser operation
Design and fabricate ruggedized opto-mechanical mounts and housings for field-deployed environments — vibration, thermal, and shock tolerant
Lead optical alignment, characterization, and beam quality measurement on integrated systems
Support field testing end-to-end: setup, alignment, data collection, post-test analysis, and failure writeups
Perform structural and thermal analysis to validate optomechanical designs under real operating conditions
Work directly with fabricators and vendors on DFM, tolerancing, and production readiness
Generate optical system documentation, drawings, and BOMs meeting MIL-STD and ITAR requirements