Sr. Optomechanical Engineer - R&D

Who We Are

Aurelius Systems is a VC-backed defense tech startup building autonomous, edge-deployed robotics systems using directed energy for counter-UAS.

We build laser weapons to shoot down drones.

We're a small team of ~10 engineers, former US military operators, and subject matter experts scaling America's directed energy dominance. The first cost effective, reliable and robust laser weapon system.

Our namesake isn't an accident. Marcus Aurelius wrote about doing the work in front of you, every day, without excuses. Henry Ford didn't wait for permission to reinvent manufacturing. That's how we operate; small team, unreasonable output, no hiding behind the unachievable.

In addition to our San Francisco lab/office, we opened our Detroit manufacturing hub and we field test weekly on our own 400-acre private range.

The Role & Your Impact

You'll own the beam train end-to-end as the Sr. Engineer responsible for the optical subsystem that gets our laser from the source to the target.

You're the optical architect. You design in Zemax, mitigate aberrations on long path, large aperture systems, and make the call on coatings, materials, and mechanical envelope. You take designs from simulation through hardware.

This role sits at the intersection of optics and mechanical engineering. You'll work directly alongside our laser engineer on source side trades, our hardware team on integration, and our mechanical and electrical teams on system level packaging.

What You'll Own

• Lead beam train optical design end-to-end

• Own aberration analysis and mitigation

• Architect coating, material, and mechanical envelope decisions

• Design and build precision optical assemblies for a high power directed energy system

• Execute opto-mechanical tolerance analysis in Zemax and validate designs

• Select, specify, and qualify optical components (lenses, mirrors, coatings, windows) for high power laser operation

• Design and fabricate ruggedized opto-mechanical mounts and housings for field-deployed environments

• Lead optical alignment, characterization, and beam quality measurement on integrated systems

• Support field testing end-to-end: setup, alignment, data collection, post test analysis, and failure writeups

• Perform structural and thermal analysis to validate optomechanical designs under real operating conditions

• Work directly with fabricators and vendors on DFM, tolerancing, and production readiness

• Generate optical system documentation, drawings, and BOMs meeting MIL-STD and ITAR requirements

What We're Looking For

• 5+ years (or PhD + 3 years) in opto mechanical design with shipped hardware

• Optical system design in Zemax OpticStudio

• Aberration mitigation experience on long path, large aperture, broad frequency systems

• Industrial laser tooling background

• Hands-on optical alignment and characterization experience

• Mechanical design experience in CAD (SolidWorks preferred) for opto-mechanical mounts, housings, and assemblies

• Understanding of thermal and structural effects on optical performance

• Familiarity with high-power laser optics and their damage thresholds, coating selection, thermal lensing

• Comfortable working across mechanical, electrical, and laser teams to integrate optical subsystems

Industrial laser tooling companies (Lasermech, IPG Photonics, Coherent, Trumpf, nLight), national labs (Berkeley BELLA, LLNL, Stanford research), defense or aerospace optics programs, directed energy R&D groups, or research institutions with fielded optical instruments.

Not a fit if: Your experience is entirely theoretical or software-based with no hands-on optical bench or hardware integration work.

Nice-to-Haves

• Experience with fast steering mirrors or beam steering systems for high speed pointing and tracking applications

• Experience with high-power CW laser beam delivery or directed energy systems

• Background in beam steering, fast steering mirrors, or pointing and tracking systems

• Familiarity with MIL-STD standards and ITAR compliance

• Experience with environmental, vibration, or shock testing of optical assemblies

• Active security clearance or ability to obtain one

Education

BS or MS in Optical Engineering, Physics, Mechanical Engineering, or related field.

What you've built matters more than where you went to school.

How You Operate

• Extreme bias for action. You'd rather build a prototype tomorrow than model it for a month

• Rigorous testing mindset. You characterize your own systems before the field does

• Comfortable with ambiguity and fast, constantly iterating in a startup environment

• Your brain only releases dopamine when you're building

• You debug from first principles, not Stack Overflow

• Clear communicator across mechanical, electrical, optical, and software teams

• Self-directed. You identify what needs to happen next and do it without being told

Why Join Aurelius Systems?

• Build more in 1 month than most engineers build in 1 year. We field test weekly. Your work goes downrange, not into a filing cabinet.

• Career velocity is real. Erick Brito went from Founding Robotics Engineer to Lead in 12 months. At ~10 engineers, there are no layers between you and impact… or between you and your next title.

• Work on a problem that actually matters. Small, cheap drones are changing warfare. Our laser systems are the asymmetric answer. Think infinite magazine, cost-per-shot near zero, scalable to every base, border, facility, truck and infrastructure.

• Join the densest defense startup ecosystem in the country. California is where the next generation of defense companies are being built. You'll be in the room with the people reshaping how America builds weapons.

How we work: Core hours are Monday–Friday, 9 to 6. When we're sprinting toward a demo or field test, the team ramps up… nights, weekends, whatever it takes to ship.

When the sprint lands, we ramp down. We don't manufacture intensity for show. We go hard when the mission demands it, and we recover when it doesn't.

Benefits

• Competitive salary + equity

• United Health Care medical, dental, and vision coverage

• Flexible 18 days PTO + 5 sick days

• Travel to field test events and range days

• Covered daily lunches and office snacks + drinks

• E-bike / scooter stipend ( Up to $500)

• Direct access to leadership and real ownership over your work

Export Control Notice

This role requires access to export-controlled information or items that require "U.S. Person" status. As defined by U.S. law, individuals who are any one of the following are considered to be a "U.S. Person": (1) U.S. citizens, (2) legal permanent residents (a.k.a. green card holders), and (3) certain protected classes of asylees and refugees, as defined in 8 U.S.C. 1324b(a)(3).

Don't Check Every Box?

Even if you don't meet every qualification listed, we encourage you to apply. At Aurelius Systems, we value diverse perspectives and are always looking for talented engineers with unconventional backgrounds.

If you've done hard, hands-on technical work and you're hungry to work on something that matters reach out to our Head of Talent, alfredo@aureliussystems.us