Originally posted 10 November 2026 by the employer.
About the role
As a Principal Optomechanical Engineer, you will own thermal and structural simulation for the optical processing unit (OPU). You will predict how temperature, mounting stress, adhesives, shock, and vibration affect free-space optical assemblies—holding lenses, microlens arrays, beam splitters, and photonic chips to sub-micron and micro-radian tolerances—and correlate simulations with optical performance.
What you'll do
- Build conduction, convection, and radiation thermal models of the OPU and optical sub-assemblies to predict steady-state and transient temperature gradients and address CTE mismatches.
- Run structural FEA for optical mounts, benches, and housings, covering bond-line stress, preload, cure shrinkage, creep, modal response, shock, and random vibration.
- Execute integrated structural-thermal-optical performance (STOP) analysis by mapping FEA displacements and surface deformations into optical models to predict changes in pointing, focus, wavefront error, and coupling efficiency.
- Derive tolerance and stability budgets and set design rules for materials, mounting, and bonding alongside optomechanical design engineers.
- Correlate simulation models with test data from thermal cycling, vibration, and metrology to refine model fidelity.
- Define simulation standards, automated workflows, and methodologies, serving as the technical authority for thermal and structural simulation.
What you'll need
- PhD or MS in Mechanical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, Optics, Physics, or a related field.
- 10+ years of thermal and structural simulation experience for precision optical or optomechanical systems.
- Advanced proficiency in FEA tools such as ANSYS, Abaqus, or COMSOL for thermal, static, modal, and dynamic analysis.
- Hands-on experience with integrated STOP analysis, including Zernike fitting of surface deformations and rigid-body motion transfer into optical design software.
- In-depth understanding of material behavior for optics and optomechanics, including glasses, ceramics, metals, adhesives, and their thermal and mechanical properties.
- Scripting skills in Python or MATLAB for pre- and post-processing and automation.
Nice to have
- Experience with optical design software such as Zemax OpticStudio or CODE V, and STOP tools such as SigFit.
- Experience with CFD and electronics-cooling tools such as ANSYS Icepak, Fluent, or Simcenter FloTHERM.
- Expertise in adhesive modeling, including cure shrinkage, viscoelasticity, and moisture absorption.
- Background working with optical assemblies with sub-micron stability requirements.
- Familiarity with environmental qualification standards such as Telcordia GR-468 or MIL-STD-810.
More semiconductor jobs: Hardware design jobs · Austin jobs
First seen in our index 0 days ago, well below the 47-day median for Hardware Systems Engineering roles.
Hardware Systems Engineering · AI ML Hardware
|
Open roles in category
1150
|
Median days since first seen
47 d
|
Category median salary (all employers)
$148k
|
See the full market breakdown ▾Category comparison, and who else is hiring
| Metric | Neurophos | All employers we track in this specialty (1150 roles · 109 employers) |
|---|---|---|
| Open roles in this specialty | 3 | 1150 |
| Open roles in the wider Software, Firmware & Systems family | 10 | 6616 · 157 employers |
| Median days since first seen | 0 d | 47 d (+47 d vs this employer) |
| Median salary (USD postings) | n/a | $148k |
Who's hiring in this category
- Intel Corporation · 90 open roles · median 34 d
- KLA Corporation · 68 open roles · median 61 d
- NVIDIA · 61 open roles · median 74 d
- Teradyne · 59 open roles · median 53 d
- Applied Materials · 58 open roles · median 46 d
- ASML · 57 open roles · median 20 d
How we counted: 1150 open Hardware Systems Engineering (AI ML Hardware) roles from 109 employers tracked in the SemiconductorJobs index, counted 11 Nov 2026. Specialty figures count only roles carrying this exact specialty label, so an employer's related work in neighbouring specialties is not included there, and is counted in the wider Software, Firmware & Systems family row. Days are counted from when our index first saw each posting, not from the employer's original posting date.