Lead Engineer- Optical Coating Design

If you’re looking for a special place to build or grow your career, you’ve found it. Whether you’re an experienced professional, a recent college graduate or somewhere in between, IDEX is a place where you can apply your existing skills and learn new ones in an environment where you can make an impact.

With interesting opportunities in engineering, marketing, sales, supply chain, operations, HR, finance, and more across more than 40 diverse businesses around the globe, chances are, we have something special for you.

JOB TITLE: Lead Engineer – Optical Coating Design
REPORTING TO: Director, Filter Design and Coating Technology
LOCATION: Center of Excellence, West Henrietta, NY (Onsite/hybrid remote possible)

ITAR/EAR CRITERIA:

Certain positions with IDEX Corporation and its business units require access to controlled goods and technologies subject to the International Traffic in Arms Regulations or the Export Administration Regulations. Applicants for these positions may need to be “U.S. Persons,” as defined in these regulations. Generally, a “U.S. Person” is a U.S. citizen, U.S. national, lawful permanent resident, or an individual who has been granted refugee or asylum status.

SCOPE OF ROLE:
The Optical Filters Group is seeking a highly motivated engineer to join our industry-leading team of optical coating designers.
This role will support Semrock’s mission as the Optical Coatings Design Center of Excellence and will work closely with Advanced Thin Films (ATF) and other IDEX businesses to develop innovative optical coating solutions and expand optical coating technology capabilities across the enterprise.

The successful candidate will apply advanced modeling, optimization, and engineering principles to create sophisticated, manufacturable, and cost-effective optical filter designs while contributing to technology development across multiple business units and manufacturing locations.

Our filter coatings are highly sophisticated, often consisting of hundreds of individual layers. Success in this role requires both strong technical and analytical skills and the ability to develop practical, manufacturable solutions. While prior thin-film design experience is highly desirable, candidates with demonstrated excellence in applying scientific and engineering principles to
complex physical systems and a proven ability to learn quickly are encouraged to apply.

This position will collaborate closely with engineering, manufacturing, applications, and technology teams across businesses. The
role requires up to 20% travel, primarily to Colorado and other facilities as needed.

ESSENTIAL DUTIES:
The fundamental responsibility of this engineering position is the development of sophisticated, manufacturable optical filter
designs through advanced modeling and optimization techniques. Key measures of success:
• Delivery of designs that meet customer performance requirements.
• Rapid and responsive support of product development activities.
• Manufacturing yield, reproducibility, and robustness of released designs.
• Cost-effective designs optimized for performance and manufacturability.
• Advancement of enterprise-wide optical coating design capabilities.
• Contributions to innovation, technical excellence, and intellectual property development.

RESPONSIBILITIES:
• Design and optimize advanced optical coatings for customer and product development programs.
• Work closely with Applications Engineers and Application Scientists to support customer engagements, specification development, feasibility assessments, and design estimates.
• Communicate complex technical concepts and tradeoffs to team members, business stakeholders, and occasionally customers with varying levels of technical expertise.
• Serve as a key technical link between product design teams and coating manufacturing operations.
• Partner with engineering and manufacturing teams across businesses to deploy best practices in optical filter design, coating processes, monitoring methodologies, and metrology techniques.
• Develop designs that consider both customer requirements and manufacturing capabilities to maximize yield, reproducibility, and cost effectiveness.
• Contribute to the development and execution of optical coating technology roadmaps.
• Develop, document, and continuously improve design methodologies, modeling appro…