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Impulse seeks a senior technical architect to own the design and modeling of free-space optical communications systems. In this role, you will be responsible for system-level architecture, trade studies, and performance modeling that determine link margin, data rate, terminal sizing, pointing requirements, and end-to-end mission performance for space-to-ground and space-to-space optical communication links.
You will build and maintain practical modeling tools in Python, MATLAB, or similar environments to evaluate architecture options and translate results into actionable requirements for optical, electrical, guidance/navigation/control, software, mechanical, and test teams. Your work will span the full signal chain—from electrical input through optical transmission, propagation, and detection—and will require balancing trade-offs across aperture size, transmit power, modulation, coding, pointing stability, atmospheric loss, and receiver sensitivity.
This is a hands-on technical role for an engineer who can operate at the architecture level while remaining close to hardware implementation. You will incorporate insights from terrestrial fiber communications and high-data-rate optical hardware into space-based system design, and support pointing and acquisition architecture by modeling sensitivity impacts on link closure and terminal design.
Required: degree or equivalent in optical engineering, electrical engineering, aerospace engineering, physics, applied mathematics, or related field. Minimum 8+ years building physics-based engineering models in Python, MATLAB, or equivalent. Strong fundamentals in optics, communications, radiometry, statistics, signal processing, or related disciplines. Experience with optical communications, RF communications, telecom systems, high-speed electrical/optical hardware, or system-level communications architecture. Prior space hardware experience is valuable but not required. Ability to work across disciplines and clearly communicate assumptions, sensitivities, margins, and technical risk.
