Sr. Electromechanical Packaging Engineer - Electro-Optical Components

Blue Origin•Littleton, CO

15h

About The Position

Blue Origin’s Blue National Security organization is hiring a senior packaging engineer to own the design of ruggedized electro-optical assemblies and fiber-optic integration for spacecraft, from concept and requirements through flight release and production support. The hardware must maintain thermal stability and precise optical interfaces while surviving launch and the space environment, including vibration, shock, radiation, and vacuum. This role 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 sponsorship may be available. The engineer will lead the mechanical and thermal design of modem processing and photonics units, electro-optic assemblies, transceiver hardware, optical amplifier assemblies, and the chassis and stacked-unit architectures that house them. The role includes thermal paths for temperature-sensitive optical components, fiber trays and internal fiber runs, and mounting interfaces to optical payloads and host spacecraft. The engineer will collaborate closely with electrical engineers and PCB designers and serve as the senior technical voice for electro-optical packaging, establishing design standards, analysis methods, and process baselines. The position spans analysis, requirements and interface definition, detailed design and documentation, production readiness, testing and integration, and team mentorship. 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.
5–10+ years designing electromechanical or electro-optical assemblies, electronics or photonics packaging, or comparable high-reliability hardware, with a record of 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 thermal, optical-interface, and contamination challenges.
Experience designing fiber management in 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 closely with electrical engineers and PCB designers on dense, high-reliability boards.
Experience participating in layout reviews and influencing component selection before layout is locked.
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 and manage mechanical and thermal interfaces with host vehicles and negotiate with owners of adjacent optical, structural, and payload hardware.
Strong 3D CAD skills; command of GD&T, tolerance stack-ups, and ASME Y14.5 drawing practice. Creo/Pro-E is a plus.
Eligibility to obtain and maintain a U.S. government security clearance.
Comfort working on fast-moving programs with evolving requirements and open trades, including making defensible decisions before all inputs are final and clearly communicating technical risk.

Nice To Haves

Active U.S. government security clearance and/or an 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 spacecraft bus interface specifications, and familiarity with spacecraft environmental specifications and qualification tailoring such as NASA GEVS and SMC-S-016, including payload isolation.
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, including MIL-PRF-29504 and ARINC 801; cleaning and inspection practices such as 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 in 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, throughout requirements, design, production, and production support.
Lead mechanical and thermal design of modem processing and photonics units, integrating digital and 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 mechanical and thermal design in coordination 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 required equipment.
Define mechanical and installation requirements for electrical harnesses and coordinate detailed design with harness designers.
Collaborate with electrical engineers and PCB designers from architecture through layout, fabrication, and test; converge board outlines, component floor plans, heat-source placement, and connector locations in ECAD/MCAD co-design.
Advise on component and BOM choices where mechanical and thermal factors matter, including junction-temperature margin and derating; define board-level protection and workmanship such as staking, conformal coating, bonding, and component restraint.
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, and report mass properties against host allocations.
Negotiate host-vehicle accommodation, including mounting interfaces, mass and center-of-gravity envelopes, thermal limits, and dynamic environment levels; quantify and close gaps between existing hardware qualifications and host specifications.
Deliver models, drawings, specifications, release packages, and mechanical and thermal interface control documents (ICDs); apply GD&T per ASME Y14.5.
Address contamination control, outgassing, hermeticity, and radiation-induced fiber attenuation; 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 and protect classified information and controlled technical data.

Benefits

Medical, dental, and 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, possible benefits and bonuses based on company discretion; bonus amounts and eligibility are not guaranteed.