Optical Product Development Engineer — Spectroscopy Instruments

LOCATION: This is a fully onsite position based at our Madison WI site. Unfortunately relocation assistance is NOT provided.

Must be legally authorized to work in the United States without sponsorship now or in the future.
Must be able to pass a comprehensive background check which includes a drug screen.

As part of the Thermo Fisher Scientific teamyoulldiscover meaningful work that makes a positive impact on a global scale. Join our colleagues in bringing our Mission to life every day to enable our customers to make the world healthier cleaner and safer. We provide our teams with the resources needed to achieve individual career goals while advancing solutions to some of the worlds toughest challenges like protecting the environment making sure our food is safe or helping find cures for cancer.

The Analytical Instruments Group (AIG) at Thermo Fisher Scientific provides a broad portfolio of instruments software and services that support a wide range of laboratory production and field applications. Our solutions are used by customers across pharmaceutical biotechnology academic government environmental and industrial markets to advance research improve productivity and drive innovation. At the Madison Wisconsin site our teams design and manufacture advanced spectroscopy instrumentation used by scientists around the world for research materials science energy and industrial applications.

We are seeking a hands-on Optical Product Development Engineer to help design build test and improve optical systems for FTIR NIR and Raman spectroscopy instruments.

This role is ideal for an engineer with a strong foundation in optics who enjoys working in the lab building prototypes troubleshooting real hardware and collaborating across disciplines to turn optical concepts into manufacturable products. The successful candidate should bring a solid technical foundation hands-on engineering mindset and curiosity to continue developing advanced optical design skills while contributing directly to product development.

This is a product-focused role not a purely theoretical modeling role. The engineer will work across optical design prototyping alignment testing system integration and transfer to manufacturing.

Key Responsibilities

• Develop optical subsystems for spectroscopy instruments including illumination collection imaging sensing laser fiber-coupled or interferometric optical systems
• Translate product and performance requirements into practical optical designs prototypes and testable hardware
• Build align and evaluate optical prototypes in the lab
• Use optical modeling and simulation tools such as Zemax Code V LightTools or similar tools to support design decisions
• Perform optical testing data analysis and performance characterization
• Troubleshoot optical mechanical electrical and system-level issues during development and production
• Collaborate closely with mechanical electrical software firmware systems manufacturing and service teams
• Support optical tolerance analysis error budgeting alignment strategies and performance optimization
• Develop and execute test plans to verify optical and instrument-level performance
• Iterate designs based on experimental data manufacturability reliability cost and performance tradeoffs
• Support design transfer to manufacturing including alignment procedures test methods yield improvement and root-cause analysis
• Work with vendors and suppliers on optical components coatings assemblies and subsystems
• Contribute to design reviews technical documentation and product development milestones
• Mentor junior engineers or technicians as appropriate

Requirements

• Bachelors degree plus 5 years of experience or Masters degree plus 3 years experience in Optical Engineering Physics Applied Physics Electrical Engineering Mechanical Engineering or a related technical discipline
• Experience building aligning testing or troubleshooting optical systems in a laboratory or product development environment
• Ability to analyze experimental data and use results to improve hardware performance
• Familiarity with optical design or simulation tools such as Zemax Code V LightTools FRED or similar tools
• Comfortable working with laboratory equipment such as optical benches alignment tools power meters spectrometers interferometers cameras detectors oscilloscopes or data acquisition systems
• Practical problem-solving mindset with the ability to debug complex hardware and system-level issues
• Ability to work effectively with cross-functional teams across optical mechanical electrical software manufacturing and quality disciplines
• Programming or scripting experience in Python MATLAB LabVIEW or similar tools for data analysis automation or modeling
• Strong communication skills and ability to document designs test results trade studies and technical decisions

Preferred Qualifications

• Strong foundation in optical principles including geometrical optics diffraction polarization imaging radiometry and basic wave optics
• Experience developing optical systems for commercial instruments analytical instruments medical devices life science tools aerospace systems defense systems or other complex hardware products
• Experience with spectroscopy systems such as FTIR NIR Raman UV-Vis fluorescence or related optical measurement technologies
• Understanding of opto-mechanical design alignment sensitivity thermal effects vibration stray light and optical contamination
• Familiarity with optical tolerancing metrology fabrication processes coatings and supplier capabilities
• Experience supporting manufacturing transfer production troubleshooting yield improvement or service investigations
• Interest in using AI machine learning or generative AI tools to improve data analysis automation modeling or engineering productivity

Ideal Candidate Profile

The ideal candidate has a solid optics foundation and enjoys turning ideas into working hardware. They are comfortable moving between analysis simulation hands-on lab work prototype builds data analysis and cross-functional problem solving. They are curious practical and eager to grow into a stronger optical designer while helping develop real products that can be manufactured tested and supported in the field.