Optical Engineer, Test

About Cowboy Space Corp:

Cowboy Space Corporation is solving the global energy crisis by building the infrastructure for abundant, resilient space-based solar energy. We are tackling one of humanity’s most complex engineering challenges with a world-class team dedicated to delivering a revolutionary power platform. Cowboy Space Corporation is transforming how civilization powers, computes, and connects - from orbit to Earth.

Mission

Cowboy Space Corporation is solving the global energy crisis by building the infrastructure for abundant, resilient space-based solar energy. We are tackling one of humanity’s most complex engineering challenges with a world-class team dedicated to delivering a revolutionary power platform. Cowboy Space Corporation is transforming how civilization powers, computes, and connects - from orbit to Earth.

Background

Cowboy Space Corporation is building the infrastructure to power and connect the orbital economy. Our modular, scalable satellites collect sunlight in Low Earth Orbit to enable multiple integrated applications: transmitting energy via infrared lasers (space-to-Earth and space-to-space), powering on-orbit high-performance computing clusters (GPU/TPU), and providing secure, high-bandwidth optical data transport.

Current energy and data systems rely on complex logistics and outdated infrastructure. Cowboy Space Corporation overcomes these challenges by enabling direct, on-demand, secure, and scalable energy distribution and data processing from space. This will revolutionize how we operate in orbit and on Earth, supporting the rapidly expanding space industrial base, ISAM (In-Space Servicing, Assembly, and Manufacturing) operations, remote regions, and military bases.

Baiju Bhatt founded Cowboy Space Corporation in 2024. Inspired by his father’s work with NASA Langley Research Center, Baiju earned his B.S. in Physics and M.S. in Mathematics at Stanford before co-founding Robinhood, now a public company that has helped over 20 million Americans access the financial system. Cowboy Space Corporation has raised ~$365 million from Index Ventures, Interlagos, Construct Ventures, Breakthrough Energy Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz, NEA, and others.

This ambitious mission demands extraordinary talent. Cowboy Space Corporation’s team has worked at places like SpaceX, Blue Origin, Stoke Space, Astranis, and NASA, and is based in San Carlos, CA. If you're ready to solve complex technical challenges and help build the most important energy company in the world, we want to hear from you.

About the Role

The Laser Engineering and Optical Communications team is hiring an Optical Engineer, Test & Metrology, to help design and run the tests that verify our laser and optical communications hardware, from individual components through full satellite integration. You will spend most of your time in the lab: building test setups, aligning optics, taking measurements, and turning data into results the design team can act on.

You will work alongside the optical, photonics, and laser engineers who design the hardware, follow that hardware through satellite integration, and take on increasing responsibility for test design and test campaigns.

Responsibilities

• Build, align, and operate optical test setups for free-space, fiber-optic, and interferometric components and subassemblies.
• Measure optical performance, including power, spectrum, beam quality, wavefront, polarization, and alignment, and reduce the data into clear results.
• Develop test plans and procedures with lead engineers, then execute them and record results accurately.
• Support testing as hardware moves through integration: components, subassemblies, deployable opto-mechanical assemblies, the optical payload, and the full satellite.
• Operate test equipment including OSAs, optical power meters, oscilloscopes, BER testers, beam profilers, wavefront sensors, and interferometers.
• Write scripts to automate measurements and data analysis.
• Investigate anomalies and feed findings back into the design.
• Support field campaigns, including ground station setup, fiber-optic system checkout, and pointing, acquisition, and tracking (PAT) validation.
• Follow laser safety procedures and keep test setups, calibration records, and configuration logs current.
• Domestic and international travel up to 10%.

Basic Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Optics, Physics, Electrical Engineering, or a related field.
• 3+ years of hands-on experience in an optics or photonics lab environment.
• Experience with precision optical alignment on a bench.
• Experience operating standard optical test equipment (power meters, OSAs, oscilloscopes, beam profilers).
• Working knowledge of optics fundamentals: Gaussian beams, fiber coupling, po