---
title: 'Sr. Optical Engineer, R&D at Aurelius Systems'
canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/sr-optical-engineer-r-d-aurelius-systems-san-francisco-0kacrfmehv7b'
type: 'job'
last_seen: '2026-10-15'
---

# Sr. Optical Engineer, R&D at Aurelius Systems

- **Company:** Aurelius Systems
- **Location:** San Francisco, CA
- **Compensation:** $150k–$200k
- **Employment:** full-time
- **Work type:** onsite
- **Posted:** 2026-06-30
- **Last confirmed live:** 2026-10-15
- **Apply:** https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/aureliussystems/a317fed4-d6e8-4598-81c5-acfe2129e8e2

## Job description

Who We Are: Aurelius Systems is a VC backed defense tech startup building autonomous, edge deployed directed energy systems for counter-UAS. We build laser weapons to shoot down drones. We're a small team of engineers, former US military operators, and subject matter experts scaling America's directed energy dominance. The first cost effective, reliable and robust laser weapon system. Our namesake isn't an accident. Marcus Aurelius wrote about doing the work in front of you, every day, without excuses. Henry Ford didn't wait for permission to reinvent manufacturing. That's how we operate — small team, unreasonable output, no hiding behind the unachievable. In addition to our San Francisco lab, we’ve opened a Detroit manufacturing hub and we field test weekly on our own 400-acre private range. The Role & Your Impact: You will own optical system design and help drive critical optical investigations for our hardware platform. This role is centered on optical expertise first. We are looking for someone who can bring deep experience in optical theory, optical design, and system-level problem solving. You should be able to evaluate tradeoffs, identify better technical paths, and raise the quality of optical decision-making across the team. Mechanical integration matters, but this role is primarily about strong optical judgment rather than owning every mechanical detail yourself. You will work closely with mechanical and electrical teammates to turn optical designs into robust deployed systems. This is a senior role for someone who can walk into a design review and bring perspectives and strategies the team has not already considered. What You'll Own:

- Lead optical design and analysis for core system components
- Drive optical investigations, trade studies, and system-level design decisions
- Specify and evaluate optical components and subsystem architectures
- Partner with mechanical engineers on packaging, housing, and integration decisions
- Support tolerance analysis, performance validation, and design iteration
- Lead or guide alignment, characterization, and test efforts for integrated optical systems
- Work with vendors and fabricators on manufacturability, tolerancing, and component feasibility
- Help establish best practices for optical development, validation, and technical documentation

What We're Looking For:

- Strong background in optical engineering, optical design, or related physics-based system work
- Deep understanding of optical theory and the ability to apply it to real hardware problems
- Experience designing, analyzing, and debugging optical systems in practice
- Ability to lead technical investigations from first principles and prior experience
- Enough mechanical fluency to collaborate effectively on packaging and integration, without needing to be a pure mechanical owner
- Strong hands-on engineering judgment and comfort working across disciplines
- Senior-level experience that allows you to guide technical choices with confidence

We want to talk if: If you have experience with alignment and characterization of precise optical systems operating in the real world Education: BS or MS in Optical Engineering, Physics, Mechanical Engineering, or related field. What you've built matters more than where you went to school. How You Operate:

- Extreme bias for action. You'd rather build a prototype tomorrow than model it for a month
- Rigorous testing mindset. You characterize your own systems before the field does
- Comfortable with ambiguity and fast, constantly iterating in a startup environment
- Your brain only releases dopamine when you're building
- You debug from first principles, not Stack Overflow
- Clear communicator across mechanical, electrical, optical, and software teams
- Self-directed. You identify what needs to happen next and do it without being told

Why Join Aurelius Systems?

- Build more in 1 month than most engineers build in 1 year. We field test weekly. Your work goes downrange, not into a filing cabinet.
- Career velocity is real. Erick Brito went from Founding Robotics Engineer to Lead in 12 months. At ~10 engineers, there are no layers between you and impact… or between you and your next title.
- Work on a problem that actually matters. Small, cheap drones are changing warfare. Our laser systems are the asymmetric answer. Think infinite magazine, cost-per-shot near zero, scalable to every base, border, facility, truck and infrastructure.
- Join the densest defense startup ecosystem in the country. California is where the next generation of defense companies are being built. You'll be in the room with the people reshaping how America builds weapons.

How we work: Core hours are Monday through Friday, 9 to 6. When we're sprinting toward a demo or field test, the team ramps up — nights, weekends, whatever it takes to ship. When the sprint lands, we ramp down. We don't manufacture intensity for show. Benefits:

- Competitive salary + equity
- United Health Care medical, dental, and vision coverage
- Flexible 18 days PTO + 5 sick days
- Travel to field test events and range days
- Covered daily lunches and office snacks + drinks
- E-bike / scooter stipend ( Up to $500)
- Direct access to leadership and real ownership over your work

Export Control Notice: This role requires access to export-controlled information or items that require "U.S. Person" status. As defined by U.S. law, individuals who are any one of the following are considered to be a "U.S. Person": (1) U.S. citizens, (2) legal permanent residents (a.k.a. green card holders), and (3) certain protected classes of asylees and refugees, as defined in 8 U.S.C. 1324b(a)(3).

## About Aurelius Systems

## Company Overview
- **One-liner**: Aurelius Systems builds autonomous, directed-energy laser systems to neutralize drone threats for military and defense applications.
- **Entity Type**: Private (Seed stage)
- **Headquarters**: San Francisco, CA, USA
- **Founded**: Not publicly available (likely 2024 or early 2025 based on funding timeline)
- **Founders**: Michael LaFramboise (CEO, Co-Founder), John Marmaduke (CTO, Co-Founder)

## Core Business
- **Primary industry**: Defense and Space Manufacturing (Directed Energy / Counter-UAS)
- **Target customers**: Military and defense organizations (DoD, allied nations) needing scalable, cost-effective defense against unmanned aircraft systems (UAS/drones).
- **Mission or purpose statement**: "Build the future of defense with autonomous directed energy built to stop drone threats at the speed of light, for the cost of electricity, anywhere they appear."

## Products & Services
- **[Archimedes]**: An autonomous counter-UAS laser defense system. Combines high-power directed energy lasers, advanced optical sensors, and AI-driven autonomy to detect, track, and neutralize aerial threats in seconds. Designed for field-portability, rapid deployment, and operation in a networked "defense grid" formation.

## Market Standing
- **Valuation/Market Cap**: Not disclosed
- **Key Metric**: $10.0M in total funding (Seed round, closed October 2025)
- **Notable Investors/Partners**: General Catalyst (lead), Draper Associates (lead), and 9 other unnamed investors. The company has also been selected by the U.S. Army for testing (T-REX 26-2 exercise).
- **Growth Signals**: Headcount grew +187.5% year-over-year (to ~16 employees). 17 active job postings (monthly postings up +13.3%, quarterly +240%). Demonstrated live field performance at a major U.S. Army exercise in June 2026.

## Competitive Advantages
- **Cost-per-kill advantage**: Directed energy lasers fire for the cost of electricity (dollars per shot) vs. traditional missile-based counter-UAS systems that cost "hundreds of thousands per kill."
- **Full autonomy**: The system uses machine learning and optical sensing to detect and engage threats without requiring a human operator to watch a screen — a stated differentiator from other solutions on the market.
- **Speed of light engagement**: Neutralizes threats in seconds, not minutes.
- **COTS-based hardware**: Built on commercial off-the-shelf components for lower cost, faster production, and easier maintenance.
- **Field-proven**: Successfully demonstrated in adverse weather during the T-REX 26-2 exercise.

## Strategic Focus
- Scaling the company and its manufacturing capacity to meet growing demand from the U.S. military and allied nations.
- Deploying a networked defense grid of multiple Archimedes units for persistent, scalable protection of forces, facilities, and critical infrastructure.
- Continuing rapid R&D iterations driven by real-world field testing.

## Why Work Here
- **Mission-driven work**: Directly contribute to protecting warfighters and critical assets — "build something that matters."
- **Fast-paced, small team culture**: Described as a small team that moves fast, tests in the field, and owns the full lifecycle from R&D to deployment.
- **Early-stage impact**: With only ~16 employees, new hires will have outsized influence and responsibility on the core product.
- **Location**: Based in San Francisco, CA — one of the few defense companies in a city built for tech talent.
- **Benefits**: Full medical, dental, and vision (United Healthcare), 18 days PTO + flexible sick days + 2-week winter break, daily catered lunch + stocked snacks, commuter stipend (up to $500 toward e-bike/scooter), on-site gym, and professional development reimbursement.
- **Work model**: In-office presence (San Francisco HQ). No hybrid/remote-first policy stated.
- **Engineering culture**: Emphasis on building hard things quickly, robotics, photonics, mechanical engineering, and AI/ML autonomy.

## Sources
1. [aureliussystems.com](https://www.aureliussystems.com/)
2. [aureliussystems.com/careers](https://www.aureliussystems.com/careers)
3. [jobs.ashbyhq.com/aureliussystems](https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/aureliussystems)
4. [linkedin.com/company/aurelius-systems](https://www.linkedin.com/company/aurelius-systems)
5. [aureliussystems.com/leadership](https://www.aureliussystems.com/leadership)

## Other roles at Aurelius Systems

- [Robotics Software Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/robotics-software-engineer-aurelius-systems-san-francisco-4ef9bbvsta7b) — San Francisco, CA
- [Sr. Mechanical Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/sr-mechanical-engineer-aurelius-systems-san-francisco-9be7xhn6d9cp) — San Francisco, CA
- [Executive Assistant](https://feeny.ai/job/executive-assistant-aurelius-systems-san-francisco-z17cgny0aba5) — San Francisco, CA
- [Perception Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/perception-engineer-aurelius-systems-san-francisco-xfb0j0b71s8c) — San Francisco, CA
- [Principal Mechanical Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/principal-mechanical-engineer-aurelius-systems-san-francisco-7ngv4y53at3v) — San Francisco, CA
- [Mechanical Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/mechanical-engineer-aurelius-systems-san-francisco-b663msw1yfxm) — San Francisco, CA
- [Sr. Robotics Engineer, Controls](https://feeny.ai/job/sr-robotics-engineer-controls-aurelius-systems-san-francisco-yfydw5rp3nj6) — San Francisco, CA
- [Sr. Robotics Software Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/sr-robotics-software-engineer-aurelius-systems-san-francisco-x54e2cgz64yq) — San Francisco, CA
- [Sr. ML Engineer, Perception](https://feeny.ai/job/sr-ml-engineer-perception-aurelius-systems-san-francisco-skcyhe7p0hv8) — San Francisco, CA
- [Principal Robotics Software Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/principal-robotics-software-engineer-aurelius-systems-san-francisco-z9ykvnmpcz6z) — San Francisco, CA