Engineering Mgr / Lead Optomechanical Engineer

Upstate NY location, to 150k, plus generous early-stage equity

Join Rudzinsky Associates’ client, a dynamic startup revolutionizing the food, agriculture industries with mobile optical sensing solutions. As the Manager of Engineering and lead Optomechanical Engineer, you will have a crucial role in commercializing innovative technology and creating products for animal output analysis and beyond. Our client’s product line includes hardware, cloud-based software, a mobile app, and machine learning algorithms that enable predictive insights into animal health and food safety. You will be a strategic partner to the CEO and other principal stakeholders, providing technical expertise and leadership in optomechanical engineering and in product development and execution. Our client is looking not only for an engineering leader, but someone that still enjoys doing hands on engineering, and the technology required by an early-stage entrepreneurial organization, where everyone wears multiple hats.

Position Summary

Our client is seeking an Opto-Mechanical Engineer who can also manage and mentor a small engineering and scientific team bringing novel food quality testing technology from development to production. The Engineering Mgr / Opto-Mechanical Engineer will be responsible for designing and evaluating the performance of mobile spectrometer-based sensors operating in challenging environments such as agricultural / food production facilities. The successful candidate will have experience with optical system design focused on design for manufacturing and expertise working with a range of passive and active optical components such as LEDs (UV, Visible, NIR), and with optical test instrument, spectrometer design. Designs are expected to follow current best practices for DFM, and reliability/quality (including adherence to relevant safety/regulatory/certification requirements).

Key Responsibilities

• Responsible for the design of optical illumination and detection systems, ensuring that high quality optical signals are generated
• Evaluating the performance of optical elements such LEDs and spectrometers by identifying and characterizing noise sources and mitigating them
• Develop modular optical sensing elements that speed up assembly and calibration
• Conduct feasibility studies and performance tests on optical systems
• Utilize software and mathematical models to simulate and analyze optical systems.
• Assist in the development and execution of test plans and procedures.
• Identify and rectify design and implementation issues.
• Ensure compliance with industry standards and best practices
• Lead the mechanical engineering team to design mounting and packaging solutions for sensor and illumination components using standard molding, casting, fabrication methods and determine the acceptable tolerances
• Monitor optical quality of signals from field tests and from real-time customer data and devise strategies to calibrate devices in the field
• Design and optimize optical sensor systems in the presence of moving fluids
• Work closely with the data science team to better understand optical spectroscopic signals in a scattering system with multiple scatters and fluorescence.
• Document all phases of development, from initial concept to final testing and implementation
• Prepare and present project progress reports and design summaries

Minimum Requirements and Qualifications

• Master’s degree in Physics, Optical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering or a related field
• 5+ years hands-on design and development in analytical instrumentation or related industry
• The ability to manage, lead, mentor a small team of engineers and scientists.
• Experience bringing technology and or products through the development cycle
• Proven experience as an Opto-Mechanical Engineer
• Strong understanding of optics and mechanical engineering principles.
• Proficient in CAD software.
• Proficient with optical analysis tools
• Proficient in DFM and manufacturing process development
• Experience with process fixturing and optical system calibration
• Proficient with laboratory instrumentation such as spectrometers, optical detectors, other optical sensor systems
• Exceptional analytical and problem-solving abilities.
• Good written and verbal communication skills.
• Ability to work well in a team.
• Excellent attention to detail.

Additional Qualifications

• Experience with spectrometer design, MEMS based optical sensors, UV-Vis and NIR spectrometer systems, FTIR instrumentation a strong plus.