Laser Sensing Systems Principal Engineer
Location: Camarillo, CA, US, 93012
Position Profile
The Laser Sensing Systems Principal Engineer is a high-impact individual contributor role carrying broad technical authority across Attollo's laser sensing product line and adjacent EO/IR technology development. This is not a management role; it is a technical leadership role for an engineer who solves hard problems, mentors teams, engages customers, and gets their hands on hardware. Approximately 40% of the role is external facing (customer engagement, proposals, capture support); 60% is internal (design reviews, lab troubleshooting, mentorship, technical direction).
Responsibilities
- Serve as the technical authority for laser sensing products, guiding system design, quality, and technical risk decisions.
- Lead the design, integration, testing, and troubleshooting of complex electro-optical systems.
- Provide hands‑on engineering support, including hardware assembly, system integration, and laboratory troubleshooting.
- Translate customer requirements into system‑level solutions across optical, electrical, mechanical, firmware, and software disciplines.
- Drive resolution of complex technical challenges and lead key design and technical reviews.
- Serve as a technical lead with customers, supporting proposals, business development efforts, and industry engagements.
- Mentor engineers, promote engineering best practices, and strengthen organizational technical capabilities.
- Identify and evaluate new technologies and lead product development from concept through prototyping.
- Align product strategy with program execution to support customer success and business growth.
- Perform other duties as assigned.
What you’ll need to be successful
- Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering, Physics, Optical Engineering, Engineering Physics, or closely related technical discipline.
- 10–15+ years of progressive, hands‑on engineering experience in defense or industrial electro‑optical systems development; significant time at small‑to‑mid‑size companies where wearing multiple hats was expected.
- Excellent written and verbal communication skills — comfortable authoring technical proposal sections, leading customer‑facing reviews, and presenting to mixed technical and non‑technical audiences.
- Demonstrated full development lifecycle ownership: concept and requirements through design, integration, qualification, production support, and field issues.
- Direct experience as technical lead or POC with defense primes, mid‑tier integrators, and/or government laboratory customers.
- Extensive experience developing and integrating laser sensing systems, including rangefinders, LIDAR, optical proximity sensors, and related electro‑optical technologies.
- Strong knowledge of laser sources, optical receivers, detector technologies, signal processing, and laser safety standards.
- Familiarity with engineering tools standard to EO/IR systems development (simulation, signal analysis, or design review tools as applicable to the role).
- Working expertise in supporting electronics, including analog circuitry, high‑speed timing, FPGA‑based processing, and system‑level troubleshooting.
- Proven ability to define, manage, and negotiate complex system requirements across optical, electrical, mechanical, and environmental domains.
- Strong understanding of IR imaging systems, sensor architectures, image processing, and defense imaging applications.
- Experience with industry‑standard sensor interfaces and communication protocols, including SPI, I²C, UART, Ethernet, CameraLink, and MIL‑STD‑1553.
- Solid foundation in optical design principles and the ability to evaluate system performance and design trade‑offs.
- Knowledge of environmental qualification standards and regulatory requirements applicable to defense and aerospace systems, including MIL‑STD‑810, MIL‑STD‑461, and ITAR/EAR.
- Current or ability to obtain US DoD Secret Security Clearance.
Ideally you’ll also have
- Master’s degree or PhD in a related discipline.
- Active US DoD Security Clearance.
- Direct experience with handheld target locator modules, laser target designators, fire control systems, guided munition seekers, or proximity fuzing.
- Experience leading or contributing to SBIR/STTR or other government R&D proposals.
- Experience with time‑of‑flight or signal processing architectures.
- Direct experience with laser safety classification, eye‑safety analysis, and certification.
- Experience working in an ITAR environment.
Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions of the role.
Nearest Major Market: Ventura
Nearest Secondary Market: Oxnard