Responsibilities

Muon seeks a Manager of Instrument Design to build, mentor, and guide a multidisciplinary team of optical and optomechanical engineers. In this role, you will establish the technical vision, design methodologies, and execution frameworks for our multispectral thermal IR instruments. As a technical leader and functional manager, you will define the architecture standards, oversight processes, and optical design, analysis, and error budget frameworks that your team executes against. You will guide optomechanical trades, establish vendor management strategies for optical components, and oversee integration with matrixed engineering disciplines across mechanical, structural, and thermal domains. While your primary focus is leadership, technical governance, and internal capability building, you will retain the deep engineering background required to contribute as an optical subsystem lead.
This position is hybrid and requires working on-site in our Mountain View, CA office three days per week.
Lead, mentor, and scale a high-performing team of optical and optomechanical engineers; owning hiring, career development, and strategic workforce allocation across missions.
Establish and oversee the technical frameworks, methodologies, and review processes for optical subsystem development, including error budgeting, performance modeling, and STOP analysis across the instrument development lifecycle.
Provide architectural oversight and guidance for precision optomechanical layouts, optical bench design, mounting, and alignment strategies.
Define standards and methodologies for stray light analysis and optical coating definition including spectral filter specifications.
Maintain the technical oversight and vendor management strategy for optical components and subsystems.
Drive cross-functional alignment with other teams in the EO/IR instruments organization, while establishing functional interfaces and boundaries with matrixed mechanisms, mechanical, structural, and thermal engineers and analysts.
Establish standards for optical assembly, alignment, test, and calibration, in collaboration with the instrument systems engineering and AIT groups.
Serve as the optical lead on select internal R&D initiatives and provide interim technical leadership on early-stage missions prior to program team scaling.

Manager, Instrument Design at Muonspace · LumiJobs

Manager, Instrument Design

Responsibilities

Qualification

Required

Benefits

Company

Muonspace

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