Job Description:

Product Engineer – Photonics

Location: Paignton, Devon
Salary: £50,000 – £60,000 DOE
Type: Permanent

Mploy Group is working with an innovative, rapidly growing deep-tech business developing advanced photonics and quantum-enabled sensing technology.

As the business continues to develop its technology and increase production capability, they are looking for an experienced Product Engineer with a strong background in photonics, optoelectronics or laser-based systems.

This is a hands-on engineering position sitting across R&D and manufacturing. Rather than simply taking products through NPI and handing them over to production, the Product Engineer remains closely involved throughout the product lifecycle, becoming a key technical owner for products and processes within manufacturing.

The Role

• Take technical ownership of photonic and optoelectronic products and subassemblies within manufacturing

• Work across both R&D and manufacturing, maintaining technical ownership as products move into and through production

• Develop and improve optical assembly, alignment, bonding and verification processes as part of ongoing R&D activity

• Become a key point of contact for technical issues arising during manufacture, test and production

• Work hands-on with precision optical and electro-optical systems

• Support hands-on manufacturing and assembly when required, particularly during periods of increased production demand

• Evaluate and qualify optical components including detectors, lasers, fibres, filters and passive optics

• Support NPI, pilot builds, design reviews and production readiness while retaining ongoing product responsibility

• Develop scalable component, subassembly and system test methods

• Improve manufacturing yield, cycle time, reliability and process capability

• Investigate optical and electro-optical failures and lead root-cause analysis

• Provide DFM, DFA and reliability input into new product development

• Develop tooling, fixtures and assembly processes to improve repeatability

• Work closely with R&D, mechanical, electronics, quality and manufacturing teams

• Support optical suppliers and manufacturing partners

• Produce build instructions, test specifications and controlled engineering documentation

• Support product qualification, compliance and continuous improvement activity

What We're Looking For

• Around 5+ years' experience within photonics, optoelectronics, optical instrumentation or laser-based product engineering

• Strong hands-on experience assembling, aligning, testing and debugging precision optical systems

• Good understanding of optical components, detectors, lasers, fibres, coatings and alignment tolerances

• Experience supporting photonic or optoelectronic products through development, NPI and ongoing manufacture

• Strong fault-finding and root-cause analysis skills

• Experience improving manufacturing yield, reliability or process capability

• Understanding of manufacturing quality and engineering change processes

• Comfortable working across R&D and manufacturing rather than operating purely as an NPI or handover function

• Degree, apprenticeship or equivalent experience within photonics, physics, optoelectronics, electrical engineering or a related discipline

Experience with SPADs, SWIR photonics, single-photon detection, LiDAR, spectroscopy, photon-counting systems, optical metrology or automated optical assembly would be particularly advantageous.

This is an excellent opportunity for a Product Engineer who enjoys remaining technically close to the product. You'll have involvement in development while also becoming one of the key technical engineering resources supporting manufacturing as production scales.

For more information or to discuss the position confidentially, please apply.