Sr. Electromechanical Packaging Engineer - Electro-Optical Components

BLUE ORIGIN•Denver, CO

2d•$144,179 - $201,850

About The Position

Blue Origin is seeking a senior electromechanical packaging engineer for Blue National Security programs. The role owns ruggedized enclosures, electro-optical assemblies, fiber-optic integration, and spacecraft packaging from concept and requirements through flight release and production support. The hardware must maintain thermal stability and precise optical interfaces while surviving launch environments and years on orbit. The engineer will lead mechanical and thermal design for modem processing and photonics units, electro-optic assemblies, transceivers, optical amplifiers, chassis, and stacked-unit architectures. Work includes thermal paths and control for temperature-sensitive photonics; internal fiber routing and junctions; electrical harness installation requirements; and interfaces to optical payloads and host spacecraft. The position collaborates closely with electrical engineers, PCB designers, thermal engineers, suppliers, and adjacent hardware teams, and serves as the senior technical voice setting electro-optical packaging standards, analysis methods, and process baselines. The 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. Applicants must also meet the stated U.S. employment eligibility requirements. The position includes mentoring engineers, leading design reviews, and protecting classified information and controlled technical data. The listed base pay range for Colorado applicants is $144,179.00–$201,849.90; ranges at other sites may differ. Benefits include medical, dental, vision, life and disability insurance, paid parental leave, a 401(k) company match, education support, stock options for qualifying regular employees, paid time off, and company-paid holidays. Eligibility for bonuses and some benefits may depend on role type and job level.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree 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, 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 with electrical engineers and PCB designers on dense, high-reliability boards.
Experience participating in PCB layout reviews and influencing component selection before layout is finalized.
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, plus experience conducting or directing supporting analyses.
Ability to define mechanical and thermal interfaces and negotiate requirements with host vehicle and adjacent optical, structural, and payload teams.
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.
Ability to make defensible technical decisions amid evolving requirements and communicate technical risk clearly.
Must be a U.S. citizen or national, U.S. permanent resident, or lawfully admitted into the U.S. as a refugee or granted asylum.

Nice To Haves

An active U.S. government security clearance.
Master’s degree 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 standards such as 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, including integrated coherent receivers, modulators, tunable sources, and amplifiers.
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.
Experience using payload isolation to reconcile hardware capability with host environments.
Experience maturing prototypes into producible, qualifiable flight products, including reconstructing 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 (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.
Experience with ANSYS or FloTHERM, 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 digital and photonics boards, electro-optic daughter cards, and power conversion slices into flight-qualifiable packages.
Package optical amplifier and transceiver hardware, addressing optical power handling, fiber end-face reliability, hermeticity, and moisture control.
Develop thermal paths, mounting materials, heater placement, thermal isolation, and thermal control for tunable lasers, modulators, and TEC-cooled devices in coordination with thermal engineering.
Own fiber-optic tray design and internal fiber management, including layout, routing, bend-radius control, strain relief, splice retention, and connector selection; define splicing and workmanship processes and specify 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 on architecture, layout, fabrication, and test; converge board outlines, component floor plans, heat-source placement, and connector locations; advise on component and BOM choices where mechanical and 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 that balance 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 qualification standards and host specifications.
Deliver models, drawings, specifications, release packages, and mechanical and thermal interface control documents; 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.
Apply design-for-manufacturing and design-for-assembly practices, specify fiber and optical assembly processes, and work with 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 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 scheduled hours
Up to 14 company-paid holidays
Possible benefits and bonuses based on role type and job level; eligibility and amounts are not guaranteed