---
title: 'Senior Opto-Mechanical Engineer at OLIX'
canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/senior-opto-mechanical-engineer-olix-london-804ny5352m3v'
type: 'job'
last_seen: '2026-09-06'
---

# Senior Opto-Mechanical Engineer at OLIX

- **Company:** OLIX
- **Location:** London, United Kingdom
- **Compensation:** £102k
- **Employment:** full-time
- **Work type:** onsite
- **Posted:** 2026-07-01
- **Last confirmed live:** 2026-09-06
- **Apply:** https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/olix/57040018-bffb-41f9-b842-43221199e495

## Job description

## ABOUT OLIX

AI is growing faster than any technology in history and the explosion in demand has created a massive infrastructure gap; we can no longer build chips or power stations fast enough to keep up. The industry is still leaning on a ten-year-old hardware blueprint that has reached its limit. A new paradigm that is faster and more efficient will be the biggest economic opportunity of the next century and create the most important company of the next decade. The OLIX Decode Accelerator 1 (DX-1) is the first accelerator architected specifically for decode. Rack-scale co-design of logic, data movement, packaging, optics and interconnect enables a step change in system level performance.

## ROLE

We build hardware where light does the heavy lifting. Our optical interconnect assemblies operate at the edge of what precision manufacturing can hold — and we need an engineer who knows how to design for that reality.

You'll own the mechanical architecture of photonic subassemblies: optical coupling structures, precision ferrule systems, laser source packaging, and the thermal-mechanical interfaces that keep everything aligned from assembly through field life.

You'll live in tolerance stacks, CTE budgets, and first-article reviews. When yield drops, you'll know where to look. This is a hands-on role that spans CAD to cleanroom, drawing release to supplier corrective action, FEA to thermal cycling failure analysis. You'll work directly with optical, process, and reliability engineers — and you'll be expected to hold the full causal chain between a mechanical decision and an optical outcome.

## RESPONSIBILITIES

- Design and develop opto-mechanical assemblies including optical coupling structures, photonic interposers, ferrule/connector systems, and precision alignment fixtures.
- Perform tolerance chain analysis (RSS and worst-case) for optical alignment budgets, accounting for thermal excursion, assembly variation, and long-term drift.
- Select and qualify optical-grade materials (Invar/Kovar, borosilicate glass, low-CTE adhesives) with consideration for CTE compatibility, outgassing, and process compatibility.
- Lead thermal-mechanical co-design of photonic subassemblies, including heatsink design for ASICs and high-power laser sources Drive DFM/DFA for precision optical assemblies including MIM components, laser-machined features, and bonded/co-cured structures.
- Generate and own GD&T drawings and engineering specifications for optical-grade fabricated parts.
- Collaborate with process engineering, optical design, and reliability teams to define assembly process flows and qualification test plans.
- Support FEA (thermal, structural, modal) for mechanical validation of optical subassemblies. Contribute to reliability programs including environmental stress testing (thermal cycling, vibration, shock) in alignment with applicable standards (GR-468-CORE, Telcordia GR-326, IEC 61300).
- Experience with OCP standards and rack design preferred.

## SKILLS AND EXPERIENCE

- B.S. or M.S. in Mechanical Engineering, Optical Engineering, or closely related field.
- 5+ years of hands-on experience designing precision opto-mechanical assemblies for production.
- Demonstrated proficiency in tolerance stack-up analysis for optical alignment applications. Strong working knowledge of photonic component packaging (laser sources, PICs, fiber arrays, optical couplers).
- Experience with thermally constrained mechanical design — CTE mismatch analysis, adhesive joint mechanics, and bonded dissimilar-material structures.
- Proficiency in 3D CAD (Creo preferred) with GD&T to ASME Y14.5. Familiarity with precision machining, MIM, EDM, laser micromachining, and optical bonding processes.
- Comfort with basic FEA tools for structural and thermal validation Green or Black Belt certification preferred

## COMPENSATION & EQUITY

- Competitive Salary: Commensurate with your experience, skills, and location.
- Equity & Ownership: Meaningful stock options. You’re not just joining the mission; you’re owning a piece of it.
- Proximity Bonus: We value your time. To minimise your commute and maximise your life, we offer a £24k annual Living-Local Bonus if your residence is within 20 minutes of the office.

Due to U.S. export control regulations, candidates’ eligibility to work at OLIX depends on their most recent citizenship or permanent residency status. We are generally unable to consider applicants whose most recent citizenship or permanent residence is in certain restricted countries (currently including Iran, North Korea, Syria, Cuba, Russia, Belarus, China, Hong Kong, Macau, and Venezuela). Applicants who have subsequently obtained citizenship or permanent residency in another country not subject to these restrictions may still be eligible.

## About OLIX

## Company Overview
- **One-liner**: OLIX, formerly known as Flux, is building a new compute paradigm using an SRAM-architecture integrated with photonics to solve the fundamental memory, energy, and speed constraints in deploying frontier AI.
- **Entity Type**: Private, Series A (raised $220M in February 2026)
- **Headquarters**: London, United Kingdom
- **Founded**: 2024
- **Founders**: James Dacombe (CEO)

## Core Business
- **Primary industry/industries**: Semiconductor Manufacturing, AI Infrastructure, Photonic Computing
- **Target customers**: Enterprise AI labs, hyperscalers, and frontier AI model developers requiring high-throughput, low-latency compute
- **Mission or purpose statement**: "Solving the most consequential problem in the deployment of frontier AI" by building infrastructure that overcomes the limits of current GPU-based memory architecture.

## Products & Services
- **OLIX Compute Platform**: A new hardware architecture combining SRAM-based compute with integrated photonics, designed to surpass HBM-based systems on throughput per megawatt and total cost of ownership (TCO), while delivering significantly better interactivity and latency than silicon-only SRAM architectures.

## Market Standing
- **Valuation**: Unicorn status; estimated $1–2.5B (latest round Feb 2026, per Dealroom)
- **Key Metric**: $220M in total funding (Series A, led by Hummingbird Ventures, with participation from Crane Venture Partners and others)
- **Notable Investors/Partners**: Hummingbird Ventures (Series A lead), Crane Venture Partners (pre-seed lead), and 4+ additional investors across seed and Series A rounds.
- **Growth Signals**: Headcount grew 420% YoY to 70 employees; operating in 6 countries (UK, US, Canada, Armenia, Romania, Germany); active job postings surged 188.9% YoY with 26 open roles as of mid-2026.

## Competitive Advantages
- **Unique photonic-SRAM architecture**: A contrarian bet that GPU-based approaches cannot simultaneously deliver high throughput and high interactivity at low cost due to physical design constraints.
- **Talent density**: Heavy hiring from top compute and AI companies (Apple, Amazon, Arm, Google, Tenstorrent).
- **First-mover in inference-era compute**: Targeting a fundamental bottleneck as frontier models require vastly more tokens per inference.

## Strategic Focus
- **Scale teams**: Aggressively hiring across engineering (ASIC/photonic design, FPGA, optics, process integration), operations, and legal in London, Austin, Toronto, Bristol, and San Francisco.
- **Prototype and productize**: Moving from architecture conception into hardware integration and manufacturing (roles include Process Integration Engineer, Opto-Mechanical Engineer, Layout Engineering Manager).
- **Transition from Flux branding**: Rebranded to OLIX in January 2026 to signal a new phase of company identity and scale.

## Why Work Here
- **In-person culture**: OLIX is an in-person company. They incentivize living within a 20-minute commute of the office with a £24,000 annual living-local bonus.
- **Compensation**: Benchmark-leading base salary, meaningful stock options (early employees build significant ownership), and workplace pension.
- **Benefits**: Comprehensive BUPA medical & dental (with Medical History Disregarded), 25 days holiday + UK bank holidays + birthday leave, meals on-site, cycle-to-work scheme, nursery scheme, visa sponsorship and relocation support.
- **Engineering environment**: M4 Mac standard (M5 Pro upgrade for engineering), on-site 3D-printing lab, noise-cancelling headphones, fully ergonomic workstation, and a culture of deep focus.
- **Impact**: "You will work with some of the best minds in photonics, systems, and compute on one of the defining problems of our era."

## Sources
1. [olix.com](https://olix.com/)
2. [olix.com/careers](https://olix.com/careers)
3. [LinkedIn - OLIX](https://www.linkedin.com/company/olix-computing)
4. [Dealroom - OLIX](https://dealroom.co/companies/olix-1/)
5. [jobs.ashbyhq.com/olix](https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/olix)

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