Principal Engineer

**Key Responsibilities**:
**Quality Assurance & Inspection**:

- Develop, implement, and maintain quality control processes for optical components and sub-systems.
- Establish and track quality metrics, conducting root cause analysis and corrective actions for defects.
- Analyze and document inspection results, identifying trends or recurring issues.
- Establish and maintain metrology records for quality aspects of optics with optical thin-film coating processes such as AR (anti-reflective), HR (high-reflective), and dichroic coatings.
- Validate coating uniformity, durability, and adherence to specifications through regular inspection and testing.
- Collaborate with L&O engineers to address defects such as pinholes, coating delamination, or uneven deposition.
- Support new product introductions (NPI) by validation optical performance and robustness.
- Provide feedback on optical component specifications and tolerances to ensure manufacturability and robustness.

**Optical Testing and Metrology**:

- Perform Interferometric testing (phase-shifting Fizeau) to evaluate surface flatness, wavefront errors and lens quality.
- Conduct spectral performance measurements, including transmission, reflectance and absorption using spectrophotometers and other optics metrology tools.
- Oversee surface quality inspections in a production environment, ensuring adherence to scratch-dig standards (MIL-PRF-13830B)
- Characterize laser beam quality (M2, spatial coherence, intensity profiles) using advance beam profiling techniques.
- Laser Induced Damage Threshold (LIDT) testing and optical density requirements.
- Operate and maintain TD GC-MS testing equipment
- Conduct outgassing and contamination testing for optical components.
- Analyze VOC test results and recommend necessary improvements.
- Understanding of optical materials and optical thin film coating processes for their behavior in a laser system under various environmental conditions.Interpret test data to identify any deviations and work with optical thin film suppliers for corrective actions.

**Educational Requirements**:

- PhD or Master’s in Optical Engineering, Physics, Materials Science, or a related field.
- Minimum 8 years of experience in Optical metrology, Quality Engineering, or Laser manufacturing.Certification in Quality or Optical Engineering (e.g., CQE, CPO, or similar) are a plus.

**Preferred Qualifications / Competencies**:

- Knowledge of volatile organics management for lasers, semi-conductor, or hard disk drive environments and metrology for process controls.
- Experience with various analytical equipment such as TD-GCMS, Spectrophotometer, Interferometer.
- Working knowledge of optical thin film technologies and processes such as Ion Beam Sputtering and E-Beam with and without Ion Assist Deposition.
- Familiarity with statistical analysis techniques, such as Weibull Analysis and Gage R&R.
- Familiarity with the following areas: Process Validations (IQ, OQ, PQ), Failure Mode and Effect Analysis (FMEA), Structured Problem Solving (8D) and Corrective & Preventive Actions (CAPA)
- Competence in MATLAB, Python, and optical design tools.
- Ability to complete tasks with urgency and have excellent attention to detail and accuracy.
- Strong technical communication skills.
- Self-motivated, ability to identify potential problems or improvements and possess the initiative to take appropriate actions as necessary.