OFC Career Zone

Would you enjoy working with a collaborative team of engineers to design and build satellite based optical communications laser terminals including optical inter-satellite links (OISL) and direct to earth links? Fibertek is looking for an optical communication engineer to join our Herndon, VA team to help pave the way for tomorrow’s advancement in space exploration. You will embrace a team atmosphere while being empowered to make decisions in your area of expertise.

Your Job

As an optical communications engineer, you will be responsible for designing and building optical space terminals. Work includes optical space lasercom systems design, leading hand-on building of space flight optical flight terminals, and leading the performance and environmental verification testing for space. Design and work with some of the smartest minds in engineering actively involved in current high-profile NASA and DOD missions. You will use your direct hands-on experience to support the design, fabrication, and qualification of laser communication terminals, optical modems, and optical pointing and tracking systems. Activities include coordinating a multidisciplinary team of engineers to the successful completion of next generation laser communication terminals and optical modems while supporting multiple concurrent projects with a mix of short-duration flight programs and long-duration technology maturation programs.

To succeed in this role, you will need the below expertise and experience:

• Lead the engineering development of unique laser designs through modeling fiber laser performance, design analysis, component specification, and hardware assembly, integration, and test
• Coordinate and support the build, alignment, and performance characterization of fiber lasers including multi-stage amplifiers, phase & amplitude modulation implementation, spectral and coherent beam combining
• Coordinate and perform formal acceptance and qualification testing
• Participate in customer interactions including formal technical reviews

ADDITIONAL QUALIFICATIONS:

• MS or PhD in Physics or Optical Engineering w/ a minimum of 5 years of direct hands-on fiber laser experience including designing, building, characterizing laser systems
• Knowledge of the laser theory and industry best practices associated with fiber laser systems including continuous wave lasers, pulsed, high peak power fiber, advanced fiber architectures, single-frequency injection locked lasers, low frequency noise lasers, electrical and thermal sub-systems.
• Expertise in laser physics of fiber lasers and amplifiers, including ytterbium, erbium, and/or thulium gain materials.
• Familiarity with relevant nonlinear processes and impacts to laser performance. Examples include Stimulated Brillouin Scattering, Four-Wave Mixing, Stimulated Raman Scattering, and Transverse Modulational Instability.
• Foundational understanding of fiber-optic components including types of fibers, pump lasers, couplers, modulators, isolators, mode-field adapters, polarization components, and others.
• Knowledge of tools for modeling fiber laser performance such as Matlab, RP Power Fiber or equivalent software
• Ability to design and execute experiments validating laser system performance and correlate the results with the expected performance
• Strong communication and documentation skills for efficient multidisciplinary communication

Why Fibertek, Inc?

FIBERTEK, Inc. is a recognized leader in advanced lasers, lidars and laser communication systems providing our DoD, NASA and aerospace customers discriminating capabilities. We pride ourselves in our innovation and customer success focused culture enabled by a creative and relaxed work environment with minimal bureaucracy. Fibertek fosters a progressive learning environment that values inspiration, promotes professional challenge and encourages personal growth. We offer a competitive and incentivized compensation package with excellent benefits.

Fibertek, Inc. is an equal opportunity and affirmative action employer. Applicants are considered regardless of race, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion, national origin, disability, protected Veteran status, age or any other protected characteristic in accordance with applicable law.

About Fibertek, Inc.

Fibertek’s mission is to deliver innovative technologies and provide exceptional support services to the customers we serve. We continually search for motivated and creative individuals to join our team. We pride ourselves on fostering a dynamic environment that values innovation, collaboration, and encourages professional challenge while enabling our valued employees to balance work and life. Fibertek is always looking for talented scientists, engineers, and technicians. If you feel your qualifications match our needs please contact us.

Connections working at Fibertek, Inc.