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Azora is building high-bandwidth optical communications infrastructure for space and ground environments, including LEO spacecraft constellations, lunar missions, GEO satcom, and deployable optical ground stations for defense. This role owns the productization of compact pointing, acquisition, and tracking (PAT) optomechanical subsystems for Azora's modular optical ground stations and space terminals.
You will guide the process of fine-steering and coarse-pointing systems from commercial prototype through field qualification, ensuring microradian-class stability across varying weather and platform conditions.
Key Responsibilities:
- Design optomechanical assemblies for beam steering, including gimbals, fast-steering mirrors (FSMs), telescope mounts, relay optics, and fiber-coupling stages
- Perform structural, thermal, and STOP (structural-thermal-optical performance) analysis to verify line-of-sight stability and wavefront error budgets
- Develop pointing error budgets covering base motion, jitter, thermal drift, and control-loop residuals; flow requirements down to components
- Design, select, and qualify actuators, encoders, bearings, and flexures for ground and space environments
- Lead alignment, integration, and test of optical assemblies in the field
- Support acquisition and tracking field campaigns at ground station sites, including troubleshooting under real atmospheric conditions
- Collaborate with software, electrical, and network engineers to close the loop between lab-based mechanical design and autonomous optical communications with space assets
This is a hybrid role based in Tempe, AZ or the Bay Area, CA. Hardware work is difficult to do remotely. Some travel is expected for field deployment and vendor/manufacturing visits.
REQUIREMENTS:
- BSc or MS in Mechanical Engineering, Optical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, or related field
- 3+ years of optomechanical design experience for precision optical systems (laser communications, telescopes, directed energy, or similar)
- Proficiency with CAD (SolidWorks, NX, Creo, or similar) and FEA tools (ANSYS, Nastran, or similar)
- Hands-on experience aligning and testing optical assemblies in a lab environment
- Working knowledge of GD&T, tolerance analysis, and precision machining practices
PREFERRED:
- Experience with fast-steering mirrors, gimbal design, or telescope pointing systems
- Familiarity with STOP analysis workflows and optical design tools (Zemax/OpticStudio, CODE V)
- Experience qualifying hardware for launch and on-orbit environments (vibration, shock, thermal vacuum)
- Field experience with optical ground stations or astronomical instrumentation
EXPORT CONTROL: Applicants must be a U.S. citizen or national, U.S. lawful permanent resident, protected individual as defined by 8 U.S.C. 1324b(a)(3), or eligible to obtain required authorizations from the U.S. Department of State.
