Lead Optical Analysis Engineer
Albedo
Denver, CO, USA
USD 192,586-211,844 / year + Equity
Posted on Jan 8, 2026
Be one of the Bedo 100
Albedo is making Very Low Earth Orbit (VLEO) mainstream, building the infrastructure to usher every satellite mission set into this new orbital domain. We build buses, integrated satellites, and turnkey missions for customers to thrive in VLEO, between 200 km - 400 km, where proximity compounds performance & drag self-cleans debris.
As part of the first 100 employees at Albedo, you will have a big impact on Albedo’s trajectory to proliferating VLEO — whether you’re advancing hardware to increase satellite longevity, scaling production for large constellations, building next-gen flight and ground software to push performance, or enabling missions that matter for national security and our day-to-day life here on earth.
How We Operate: Albedo takes a first-principles approach — in space and in business. We move with speed, take calculated risks, and learn quickly. We use AI regularly to create leverage in every discipline across the company. We work in-person at our Broomfield CO HQ to maximize team & company productivity. We work hard & with urgency to compound our first-mover advantage.
Who We're Looking For: Builders who want to own outcomes, not tasks. Systems thinkers who balance precision with iteration while thinking about the big picture. Individuals who are energized by creating a category rather than competing in an existing one. You’ll join a team that has already proven what others said wasn’t feasible and is now scaling & upgrading our VLEO buses & payloads to serve mission sets across sensing, communications, and responsive operations.
If you can feel the excitement running through your veins, apply to be one of the Bedo 100.
Compensation and Benefits:
- Employee friendly equity compensation
- 4% direct matching 401k
- Health Insurance: 100% employee coverage & 75% dependent coverage
- Parental leave and childcare coverage
- Flexible vacation and sick time from day one
- 12 company holidays
- $100 monthly wellness benefit
- Relocation package if not based in Denver
What You’ll Do:
- Responsible for optical modeling and sensitivity analysis
- Converting all low-level wavefront error (WFE) contributions of opto-mechanical design into WFE budget. Working with the opto-mech designers to map the non-perfect aspects of their designs into rms WFE space from mechanical space including thermal-structural dynamics. Identify terms we cannot quantify at various levels of assembly and determine impact/path forward to ensure design closes with integration.
- Responsible for set-up optical analysis results of structural-thermal-optical performance analysis (STOP) with inputs from thermal and structural engineering
- Responsible for interpretation and analysis of STOP results to and sensitivity analysis to determine next steps in design iteration
- Work with team to understand details of design causing results and iterate to optimize the design
- Obscuration analysis for opto-mechanical design and as-built
- Line of Sight sensitivity matrix analysis for opto-mechanical design and as-built
- Field Angle Map (distortion) analysis for opto-mechanical design and as-built
- Develop and perform Monte Carlo WFE prediction from current RSS WFE prediction
- Manage WFE budget as design progresses to re-allocate terms which can and cannot meet original allocation
- Responsibly recommend re-allocation of WFE margin as design matures
- Create optical performance merit function(s) for existing system design
- WFE accounting for the 1g ground test “mission" and associated uncertainty, each of the different major alignment step missions, and the post-environmental test mission, in addition to the normal 0g mission
- Produce overall predicted system WFE maps, and in working with alignment lead engineer, including step-by-step expectations per alignment plan – Including 1g to 0g analytical prediction
- Analyze AIT environmental impacts to alignment measurement error
Your Ideal Skills and Experience:
- 5-10+ years of experience working optical system analysis and optimization
- Familiarity with various optical design and analysis software tools
- Deep understanding of optical sensitivities, aberrations and what effects them in mechanical design/implementation
- Experience with WFE budgets, allocation and budget management
- Experience with STOP modeling and the iterative, multi-disciplinary process
- Hands on experience optimizing optical systems to reduce aberrations and WFE
- Regularly uses AI tools as essential leverage to accelerate work, improve clarity, and multiply output
Albedo does not accept agency resumes. Please do not forward resumes to Albedo employees. Albedo is not responsible for any fees or overhead related to unsolicited resumes.
Additional Requirements: In compliance with federal law, all persons hired will be required to verify identity and eligibility to work in the United States and to complete the required employment eligibility verification form upon hire. All persons hired will be required to be a U.S. citizen, a lawful permanent resident of the U.S., or protected individual as defined by 8 U.S.C. 1324b(a)(3), or eligible to obtain the required authorizations from the U.S. Department of State.
Equal Opportunity Employer/Veterans/Disabled: Albedo is an equal opportunity employer, and all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability status, protected veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law.
Relocation: Relocation for this position is available
US CITIZENSHIP IS REQUIRED
#LI-Onsite
192586 - 211844 USD a year
The final compensation package is subject to change if the candidate's experience and company need drive a different job level than originally slated for the position.