Senior Mechanical Engineer – Opto-Electronic Hardware Design

As Optics11 continues to grow, we are looking for a Senior Mechanical Engineer – Opto-Electronic Hardware Design to take ownership of the mechanical hardware development of high-performance fiber-optic measurement systems used in demanding energy and marine environments.

At Optics11, we develop cutting-edge fiber-optic sensing solutions that make critical infrastructure and underwater security systems smarter, safer, and more reliable.

In this role, you will design ruggedized chassis, enclosures, and mechanical assemblies that protect and integrate electronic, photonic, fiber-optic, and electromechanical subsystems. You will work closely with multidisciplinary engineering teams and external partners to develop robust, manufacturable, and serviceable hardware solutions that support integration, qualification, manufacturing, and long-term operation.

You will apply structured engineering methods, sound technical judgement, and rigorous verification practices to ensure products perform reliably under vibration, shock, thermal, EMC, ingress protection, and other environmental conditions.

What you'll do:

• Lead the mechanical design and development of chassis, enclosures, mounting structures, and assemblies for fiber-optic measurement systems, from concept through qualification and release.

• Collaborate with electronics, photonics, optical, and systems engineering teams to define PCB placement, optical component integration, fiber routing, interconnections, thermal interfaces, and packaging constraints.

• Design robust hardware solutions that meet vibration, shock, thermal, EMC, ingress protection, environmental, serviceability, and lifecycle requirements for energy and marine applications.

• Develop modular, maintainable, and upgradeable hardware architectures that support manufacturability, serviceability, and long-term product support.

• Create and maintain engineering documentation, including drawings, specifications, design calculations, assembly instructions, and manufacturing documentation.

• Manage technical collaboration with suppliers, manufacturers, OEMs, and external development partners to ensure performance, quality, manufacturability, and qualification requirements are met.

• Support prototype development, subsystem integration, environmental and mechanical testing, product qualification, and release activities.

• Analyze test results, performance margins, failure modes, and operational limits to improve product robustness, reliability, and design maturity.

• Apply engineering analyses, trade-off studies, DfMA principles, simulation tools, and FEA to optimize mechanical, thermal, structural, dynamic, manufacturability, lifecycle, and cost performance.

• Investigate qualification failures, manufacturing issues, integration challenges, and field performance topics using structured problem-solving and root cause analysis.

• Provide technical input during design reviews, engineering discussions, development decisions, and cross-functional integration activities.

• Plan and execute work in line with priorities, milestones, quality expectations, and timelines, while proactively communicating risks, dependencies, and recommendations.

• Share expertise, lessons learned, and best practices to strengthen team capability, collaboration, product quality, reliability, and continuous improvement.

Why Join Us?

• Join one of Europe’s most promising deep-tech scale-ups.

• Shape the future of a rapidly growing multidisciplinary R&D organization.

• Competitive salary and benefits package.

• Enjoy regular team activities and company events.

• Fresh team lunches provided3 times/ week.

Qualifications:

• MSc in Mechanical Engineering or a related technical discipline with a focus on mechanical design of opto-electronic, electronic, photonic, or other high-tech hardware products.

• 5+ years of experience in multidisciplinary product development environments.

• Strong experience designing chassis, enclosures, hardware packaging solutions, and mechanical assemblies for high-performance products.

• Proven track record in developing ruggedized opto-electronic hardware products from concept through qualification and release.

• Strong understanding of vibration, shock, thermal, EMC, ingress protection, and environmental requirements for demanding operational environments.

• Experience with 3D CAD tools such as SolidWorks, Creo, NX, or similar.

• Experience creating engineering drawings, specifications, and manufacturing documentation.

• Strong analytical mindset with experience in structured problem solving and engineering verification.

• Strong communication skills in English and collaborative working style.

• Eligible for EU/NATO security clearance.

Nice to have:

• Experience with fiber-optic integration, optical component packaging, or photonic hardware development.

• Experience with CE/FCC, MIL, NATO, and/or STANAG qualification standards.

• Experience with ruggedized chassis standards used in defense, marine, aerospace, or industrial applications (e.g. VPX, CompactPCI, uTCA).

• Experience managing external suppliers, manufacturers, and development partners.

• Experience supporting environmental qualification, certification, or product compliance programs.

Please note that we can only consider candidates who are currently residing in the Netherlands and already have the legal right to work here without requiring visa sponsorship or a work permit.