Optical Test Engineer II
South Park Commons is a community and early-stage venture firm that helps talented founders and technologists move from an idea (-1) to a company (0). It runs a no-cost, no-equity residency program for ideation and exploration, and provides $1M to $10M in funding for founders ready to build venture-scale companies.
About South Park Commons
South Park Commons operates a talent-dense community of technical founders, researchers, and domain experts who test ideas, find collaborators, and build conviction on what to build and how to build it. Its offering spans two stages: a six-month Residency with no cost or equity focused on ideation and exploration, and Funding of $1M to $10M for members ready to build venture-scale companies. Beyond capital, SPC provides learning forums on frontier topics (embodied AI, reinforcement learning, energy-efficient computing, AI in biotech), live programming with industry leaders, partner collaboration from a team of former founders and operators, social scaffolding to counter the isolation of early company building, and up to $1M in credits and perks from partners like Anthropic, OpenAI, Microsoft, GCP, and AWS. SPC has spaces in San Francisco, New York, and Bengaluru, and its community has produced companies such as Render, Luma Labs, Pilot, Comun, Anthropic, Unit21, and Profound.
Skills
About the Role
You will join the team developing infrared remote sensing instruments, driving hands-on testing, characterization, and environmental qualification of critical optical, optomechanical, and moving mechanism subsystems. You'll design test campaigns, develop ground support equipment, and integrate complex electro-optical systems in a fast-paced, small-team environment. This position is hybrid and requires working on-site in the Mountain View, CA office three days per week.
Requirements
- Ph.D. and experience working with imaging systems and infrared remote sensing instruments within a multi-disciplinary environment; or M.S. and 3+ years industry experience; or B.S. and 5+ years industry experience
- Basic software skills in one or more languages (e.g. Python, C++)
- Experience working with precision optical and mechanical metrology equipment
- Experience with root cause analysis efforts and performing rigorous data analysis, post-processing, and test report generation
- Excellent communication, presentation, and organization skills
- Excited to work in a fast-paced environment with new challenges each week
Responsibilities
- Drive optical, optomechanical, and moving mechanism component and subsystem test efforts including definition of test strategy and standards, creation of test procedures, test execution, post-processing/data analysis, and generation of test reports
- Conduct functional, performance, and environmental testing including vibration, thermal-vacuum/TVAC, and thermal stress at both the subsystem and instrument levels
- Develop and operate ground support equipment (GSE) and testbeds to facilitate instrument-level characterization, calibration, spacecraft integration, and full-system check-outs
- Champion the continuous improvement of testing methodologies, tools, and best practices to enhance overall efficiency and reliability in instrument development
- Collaborate and communicate effectively with subsystem engineers and analysts, instrument and spacecraft systems engineers, AI&T and production teams, program managers, and other stakeholders
Benefits
- Equity compensation
- Medical insurance
- Dental insurance
- Vision insurance
- 401k retirement plan
- Short & long term disability insurance
- Life insurance
- Three weeks paid vacation for new employees
- 12 paid holidays
- Unlimited sick time
- Paid parental leave