Essential Functions
Lead, coach, and develop optical engineers and technical leads with an average of twenty (20) direct reports. Set clear expectations, hold regular individual and department meetings, recognize contributions, and support employee engagement and retention. Lead hiring and onboarding, assess performance, and support career development and knowledge transfer. Identify training needs and follow established management and HR processes. Plan staffing, workload, equipment availability, and assignment transitions within the discipline and program leadership. Match skills to current and anticipated needs and coordinate resources. Provide technical direction and direct engineering support for assigned programs and new business pursuits. Guide and contribute to mission-specific requirements, architectures, designs, and trade studies for active and passive optical systems across the ultraviolet to long-wave infrared spectrum, as applicable. Develop and guide optical analyses and error budgets to predict performance in test and operational environments, including structural-thermal-optical performance analysis as applicable. Evaluate image quality, wavefront error, modulation transfer function, ensquared energy, radiometric performance, and stray light. Ensure component and subassembly specifications and tolerances support system performance, verification, and mission requirements. Partner with systems, mechanical, electrical, thermal, manufacturing, mission assurance, and program test teams to mature optical designs and support fabrication, environmental testing, and verification. Improve optical engineering methods and capabilities through new technologies, advanced metrology, automation, and reusable analyses that improve mission capability, engineering efficiency, and affordability. Support effective transfer of development work into production. Manage and assess the optical team's contribution to program cost, schedule, and technical baselines. Track progress, resolve resource conflicts, and communicate risks and recovery plans to program and discipline leadership. Guide optical alignment, metrology, and test layouts, and mentor engineers in practical techniques for fabrication, integration, and environmental testing, including vibration and thermal-vacuum testing. Compare predicted performance with test results to support verification and qualification. Lead or support troubleshooting, root-cause investigations, corrective actions, and engineering change reviews. Support proposals, technical solution development, vendor assessments, and basis-of-estimate preparation. Review optical scope and performance, manufacturability, testability, cost, and schedule tradeoffs, and approve technical baselines within delegated authority. Engage customers and leadership on optical technical decisions as needed. Improve optical engineering methods and department practices. Promote reusable analyses, practical capability development, and effective transfer of engineering work into production; contribute to discipline roadmaps and tool needs. Establish and execute one- to two-year operational plans for the optical engineering organization, including capability development, resource allocation, engineering infrastructure, and budget recommendations. Manage assigned department budgets, expenditures, and routine approvals within delegated authority. Ensure accurate timekeeping and required training completion. Enforce workplace safety, security, export-control, and engineering compliance.
