Sr. EO/IR Systems Engineer

HEICO•Santa Barbara, CA

About The Position

Santa Barbara Infrared, Inc. (SBIR) is hiring a Senior Electro-Optical/Infrared (EO/IR) Systems Engineer for its Systems Engineering Group. Reporting to SBIR’s CTO, this role defines, designs, and analyzes electro-optical test systems for core product development, including Infrared Scene Projectors, Standard Commercial Products, and Integrated Electro-Optical Test Systems. The engineer also supports product integration, characterization, verification, and validation. The role contributes to development and support of highly integrated EO/IR hardware and software solutions used to test military, commercial, and research sensor systems in laboratory, production, depot, and field applications. The engineer works with electrical, mechanical, and software engineering teams, supports customers and sales, and may travel to customer facilities for installation, integration, training, and testing. The position is based in Santa Barbara, California, and is described as full-time, Monday through Friday, with 5–15% travel.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in physics, engineering, or another relevant technical field.
At least 10 years of experience in electro-optics, infrared systems, or a related field; an advanced degree may count toward the years of experience.
Solid foundation in optics, sensors, and EO/IR sensing systems, with application to ground, air, or space systems.
Experience with physical modeling, simulation, and analysis.
Systems engineering experience on EO/IR system hardware development efforts, including one or more of requirements management and flowdown, trade studies, failure-mode and root-cause analysis, corrective action, product lifecycle support, or test-plan and procedure development.
Laboratory experience testing optical systems and using optical test equipment and components for active and/or passive optical systems.
Experience developing optical error budgets.
Ability to set priorities and organize incoming projects.
Ability to communicate system requirements, testing needs, debug information, and design concepts with other engineering disciplines.
Familiarity with Microsoft Windows and high proficiency with Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint.
Ability to communicate with vendors and customer teams and demonstrate system performance during factory and site acceptance testing.
Ability to travel to customer facilities (5–15%).
Must be a U.S. citizen, permanent resident, or person granted asylum, with proper documentation, to comply with U.S. export control regulations.
Must pass background, reference, and ITAR/EAR checks, as well as a pre-employment drug screen.
Must be able to perform the essential duties satisfactorily; reasonable accommodations may be made for individuals with disabilities.

Nice To Haves

Advanced degree in physics, engineering, or another relevant technical field.
Technical leadership experience, including high-level project planning, technical mentorship, and support for technical roadmap development.
Experience or expertise in opto-mechanical design, STOP analysis, and tolerancing.
Experience or expertise with EO/IR technology, imaging, radiometry, and calibration techniques.
Proficiency with C-based languages (C/C++), MATLAB, and/or Python.
Proficiency with image-processing and/or image-analysis software.
Experience or expertise with optical design and simulation analysis tools such as Zemax or equivalent.
Experience or expertise with MEMS and/or photolithography fabrication processes and integrated-circuit packaging.
Experience or expertise with electronics, including integrated circuits, microcontrollers, FPGAs, and high-throughput data transfer.

Responsibilities

Develop product architecture and system requirements, and perform requirements decomposition and flowdown for complex EO/IR test systems.
Perform system performance modeling, trade studies, and requirements flowdown analysis to support product development.
Work with electrical, mechanical, and software engineering staff to guide new product development and sustaining efforts for standard products.
Work with the technical team to optimize process flow and documentation.
Develop test plans and procedures based on system requirements.
Collect and analyze test data and calibrate systems for optimal performance.
Interact directly with customers during factory acceptance testing.
Travel to customer facilities to lead on-site system installation, integration, and training.
Perform troubleshooting, testing, and calibration for ongoing and special-purpose programs.
Perform analysis to support Sales in identifying solutions for potential customers’ applications.
Establish, maintain, and flow down requirements; lead and execute trade studies; conduct failure-mode, root-cause, and corrective-action analysis; and support product lifecycle activities.
Support verification and validation, product integration, and characterization.
Communicate system requirements, testing needs, debug information, and design concepts across engineering disciplines.
Demonstrate system performance through leading or supporting factory and site acceptance testing.