Senior Optical Engineer, R&D
Company websitegetclera.com (Clera, opens in new tab)
Base salary $150K to $200K
Employer-published annual base salary, USD. Advertised base range in San Francisco, CA
You apply on the employer's own site. Six Figure Work does not handle applications.
- LocationSan Francisco, CA
- WorkplaceOn-site
- Status at last checkSource accepting applications when checked
- Last checked (55 min ago) · observed since
About this job
About the Role
Join a defense technology team developing autonomous directed-energy systems. You will lead optical design and investigations for hardware platforms, applying strong optical judgment to help deliver robust systems beyond the lab.
What You'll Do
Lead optical design and analysis for core system components.
Drive optical investigations, trade studies, and system-level design decisions.
Specify and evaluate optical components and subsystem architectures.
Partner with mechanical engineers on optical packaging, housing, and integration.
Perform tolerance analysis, validate performance, and guide design iterations.
Lead or support alignment, characterization, and testing of integrated optical systems.
Work with vendors and fabricators on manufacturability, tolerancing, and component feasibility.
Establish practical approaches for optical development, validation, and technical documentation.
What We're Looking For
Typically 5 to 10 or more years of senior-level experience in optical engineering, optical design, or related physics-based systems work.
Demonstrated experience designing and analyzing optical systems built and operated as real hardware, including precision alignment, characterization, and hardware debugging.
Ability to apply optical theory from first principles and lead investigations that inform system-level decisions.
Experience with optical components and subsystem architectures, vendor collaboration, tolerance analysis, and performance validation.
Experience collaborating with mechanical engineers on packaging, housing, and integration.
Relevant experience may include high-power laser optics, ruggedized beam delivery, beam directors, collimators, fast steering mirrors, adaptive optics, or laser communications terminals.
Experience with Zemax/OpticStudio or Code V, and 1-micron Yb fiber laser systems, is valuable.
BS or MS in Optical Engineering, Physics, Mechanical Engineering, or a related field.
Compensation & Benefits
Base salary: $150,000 to $200,000 annually. Visa sponsorship is not available.
Location
On-site in San Francisco, California.
Source: Clera on Ashby · View original posting (opens in new tab)
Pay in context
This role's base floor ($150,000) is above 56% of the 2,091 Engineering (non-software) roles in California listed on this site; 62 others list the same floor. Their median floor is $146,800; the middle half runs from $125,000 to $173,500.
Only jobs on this site count, and each one publishes a base salary of $100,000 or more, so this compares six-figure jobs with each other, not with the whole market. Computed Nov 7, 2026.
This listingSenior Optical Engineer, R&D$150K to $200K
Medical AI Researcher$150K to $230K
Head of Marketing$150K to $240K
Founding Product Designer$150K to $250K
Platform Engineer (Kubernetes)$150K to $200K
Senior Member of Technical Staff$150K to $215K
Founding Engineer$150K to $220K
Chart as a table
| Role | Published base |
|---|---|
| Senior Optical Engineer, R&D (this listing) | $150K - $200K |
| Medical AI Researcher | $150K - $230K |
| Head of Marketing | $150K - $240K |
| Founding Product Designer | $150K - $250K |
| Platform Engineer (Kubernetes) | $150K - $200K |
| Senior Member of Technical Staff | $150K - $215K |
| Founding Engineer | $150K - $220K |
Observed changes
- Began meeting the published-salary criteria
- First observed on the employer's board
- Observed since
- Employer-stated posting date
- 2026-11-06
Where this pay comes from
Location as the employer wrote it: San Francisco
Base salary: $150,000 to $200,000 annually. Visa sponsorship is not available.
- Method
- Employer text, read with fixed rules and re-verified
- Checked
- Rule set
- us-base-v2
The pay passage appears in the employer's own job text. Fixed, deterministic rules located it, and the passage below was checked against the stored copy of the posting.
What we verified
- The pay figures come from the employer's own listing, quoted exactly above.
- The pay is an annual base salary in US dollars with a minimum of at least $100,000.
- The role was publicly listed on the employer's job board when last checked.
We do not verify what the employer will actually offer, whether the employer is still recruiting for the role, or anything beyond what the employer published. Full methodology.