Principal Optical Facility Technician

INZPIRE LTD; Farnborough; On-site; GBP 40,000 - GBP 60,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading technology company in Farnborough is seeking a Principal Optical Facility Technician to manage and optimize optical testing processes. You will be responsible for setting up and calibrating testing equipment, leading acceptance tests, and ensuring production consistency. Candidates should have a Bachelor's degree in Industrial Engineering and experience with fibre lasers, clean-room operations, and relevant test equipment. This role offers competitive salary and benefits in a dynamic work environment.

Benefits

Matched contribution pension scheme

Generous holiday allowance

Health Cash Plan options

Employee discount portal

Volunteering opportunities

Qualifications

• Deep understanding of bulk optics handling and best practices.
• Experience in fitting optics and clean-room environments.
• Specification and design of manufacturing hardware solutions.

Responsibilities

• Set up and calibrate optical test equipment.
• Lead acceptance testing for defined specifications.
• Produce reports with insights for cross-functional teams.

Skills

Understanding of fibre laser testing

Clean-room management

Experience with Thermal Power meters

Optical modelling and test methods

Component/system validation

Education

Bachelor's degree in Industrial Engineering

Advanced degrees in Optical Engineering

Tools

Thermal Power meters

Optical Spectrum Analyzer

National Instruments DAQ

Job description

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Job Title: Principal Optical Facility Technician

Location: Farnborough, England, United Kingdom

Role Type: Permanent – Full Time

Package: Competitive Salary + Benefits

Role ID: SF19334

Are you ready to be part of the future? At QinetiQ, we’re not just imagining tomorrow we are creating it. From cutting‑edge defence technology to ground‑breaking innovations our mission is to empower and protect lives. Join us as a Principal Optical Facility Technician at our Farnborough or Malvern site, where you will have the opportunity to work with cutting‑edge technology in partnership with some of the most brilliant minds.

The Role

QinetiQ are currently seeking an experienced Principal Optical Facility Technician, to help support and develop their manufacturing capabilities.

Your role will involve transferring and productionising R&D test processes, troubleshooting product issues and overseeing the maintenance of production test equipment. You will also analyse production test data to identify areas for improvement and ensure that production deadlines are met. Additional responsibilities include the ownership of NPI transfer activities, including various sub‑modules and associated tests regimes.

As a Production based Optical Test Engineer, you will be tasked with managing numerous Test fixtures across the production infrastructure, ensuring safety, uptime, calibration, and capability.

Your responsibilities will include:

• Set up, align, and calibrate optical test equipment, ensuring that all systems are accurately configured and optimised
• Lead the acceptance testing process, ensuring that they meet defined optical specifications and quality standards. Establish testing protocols for various stages of development
• Implement process control techniques to ensure production consistency. Collect and perform statistical analysis on data to identify trends, variances, and correlations to performance metrics
• Produce comprehensive reports with actionable insights, working with cross‑functional teams to refine and improve designs and processes
• Working with Production engineers to take ownership of transferring test techniques and methods from the R&D phase to mass production. This includes ensuring that all testing technologies and processes are scalable and repeatable for volume manufacturing
• Work with SME’s to understand and correct errors / discrepancies and investigate discrepancies in test results and implement corrective actions

Essential experience of the Principal Optical Facility Technician

• Understanding or previous experience of fibre Laser and bulk‑optic assembly testing with a deep understanding of bulk optics handling, cleaning, and best practice
• Experience in cleaning and fitting optics into mounts and working in or managing a clean‑room environment
• Previous experience using various test equipment including Thermal Power meters, OSA, Scope, NI‑DAQ, PSU, along with experience of alignment and adjustment of optical assemblies
• Specification and design of manufacturing hardware and software solutions
• Strong understanding of Optical modelling and test methods
• Experience of component/system Validation and Verification to specification

Essential qualifications for the Principal Optical Facility Technician

• Bachelor's degree or higher in Industrial Engineering, Operations Management, or related field
• Advanced degrees or professional certifications in fields relating to Optical Engineering, Physics or similar
• Or equivalent level and depth of experience and training

We value difference and we don’t have a fixed idea when it comes to background or education, provided you can show the required level of experience and willingness to learn then we would like to hear from you.

This role is 37 hours per week based at one of our Farnborough or Malvern sites.

Multi‑Site

QinetiQ operates state‑of‑the‑art facilities across the UK that focus on defence, security and technology innovation. These facilities enable QinetiQ to conduct a wide range of research, testing and development activities that support both military and civilian applications helping to advance technology and support national security.

Why Join QinetiQ?

As we continue to grow into new markets around the world, there’s never been a more exciting time to join QinetiQ. The formula for success is our appetite for innovation and having the courage to take on a wide variety of complex challenges.

As a QinetiQ employee, you’ll experience a unique working environment where teams from different backgrounds, disciplines and experiences enjoy collaborating widely and openly as we undertake this exciting and rewarding journey. Through effective teamwork, and pulling together, you’ll get to experience what happens when we all share different perspectives, blend disciplines, and link technologies; constantly discovering new ways of solving complex problems in a diverse and inclusive environment where you can be authentic, feel valued and realise your full potential. Visit our website to read more about our diverse and inclusive workplace culture www.qinetiq.com/en/careers/life-at-qinetiq

• Matched contribution pension scheme, with life assurance
• Generous holiday allowance, with the option to purchase additional days
• Options to join Health Cash Plan, Private Medical Insurance and Dental Insurance
• Employee discount portal: Personal Accident Insurance, Travel Insurance, Restaurants, Cinema Tickets and much more
• We are proud to support the Armed Forces community by honouring the Armed Forces Covenant and maintaining our Gold Award standard in the Defence Employer Recognition Scheme
• Volunteering Opportunities - helping charities and local community

Our Recruitment Process:

We want to make sure that our recruitment process is as inclusive as possible and we aspire to bring out the best in our candidates by creating an environment where everyone feels valued, heard and supported. If you have a disability or health condition that may affect your performance in certain assessment types, please speak to your Recruiter about potential reasonable adjustments.

Many roles in QinetiQ are subject to national security vetting being completed, applicants who already hold the appropriate level of vetting may be able to transfer it upon appointment. A number of roles are also subject to additional restrictions, which means factors such as nationality or previous nationalities may affect the roles that you can be employed in.

Please note that all applicants for this role must be eligible for SC clearance, as a minimum.