Optical Engineer

About this role

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What we offer: At Magna, you can expect an engaging and dynamic environment where you can help to develop industry-leading automotive technologies. We invest in our employees, providing them with the support and resources they need to succeed. As a member of our global team, you can expect exciting, varied responsibilities as well as a wide range of development prospects. Because we believe that your career path should be as unique as you are.

Group Summary: Transforming mobility. Making automotive technology that is smarter, cleaner, safer and lighter. That’s what we’re passionate about at Magna Electronics, and we do it by creating world-class Electronic systems. We are a premier supplier for the global automotive industry with full capabilities in design, development, testing and manufacturing of complex Electronic systems. Our name stands for quality, environmental consciousness, and safety. Innovation is what drives us and we drive innovation. Dream big and create the future of mobility at Magna Electronics.

Job Responsibilities:

This role is not eligible for visa sponsorship. Candidates must have current and ongoing authorization to work in the United States.

JOB SUMMARY The Optics Engineer is responsible for the design, development, characterization, validation, and technical support of automotive camera products. Responsibilities include development of lens, imager, camera-system, and optical test specifications; optical performance optimization; advanced laboratory characterization; manufacturing and calibration support; and resolution of complex optical performance issues throughout the product-development lifecycle. The role may be assigned primarily to Optical Development, Optical Test and Characterization, or a combination of both, based on program and organizational needs. The engineer works independently on intermediate-to-advanced assignments and serves as a technical resource within cross-functional and global teams. JOB FUNCTIONS (ESSENTIAL) - LEVEL 2 Optical Development and Program Execution • Lead optical design and development activities for automotive camera products, including requirements definition, component evaluation, implementation, test, debug, and design release. • Develop optical architectures and system-level specifications for lenses, CMOS imagers, illumination paths, filters, and complete camera systems. • Evaluate CMOS image sensors and optimize camera performance through imager configuration, register tuning, and quantitative image-quality assessment. • Develop or specify multi-element lenses optimized for automotive near-field and far-field applications. • Perform optical tolerancing, sensitivity analysis, and design-tradeoff assessments that balance performance, robustness, manufacturability, and cost. • Provide technical ownership of optical performance requirements and support program milestones, design reviews, customer deliverables, and launch readiness. • Identify optical technical risks and define practical mitigation plans to protect program timing, quality, and customer commitments.

Advanced Optical Testing and Characterization • Develop, implement, validate, and continuously improve optical test methods for lenses, image sensors, and complete automotive camera systems. • Perform advanced optical characterization, including MTF and spatial resolution, distortion, relative illumination, color and spectral response, noise and dynamic range, flare, stray light, ghosting, veiling glare, and overall image quality. • Develop test specifications, procedures, acceptance criteria, correlation methods, measurement-system analyses, and reporting templates for camera development programs. • Design and automate optical test processes to improve throughput, repeatability, data quality, and utilization of laboratory equipment. • Analyze complex optical performance issues, use quantitative data to determine root cause, and recommend corrective actions to development, manufacturing, supplier, and customer teams. • Plan and execute validation activities throughout the development lifecycle while enabling parallel support of multiple programs without compromising technical rigor. • Evaluate emerging optical measurement technologies and characterization methods that improve next-generation camera development and validation.

Cross-Functional Integration and Manufacturing Support • Interface with mechanical, electrical, hardware, software, systems, manufacturing, quality, and supplier teams to ensure seamless integration of the optical system into the ECU and camera module. • Assess the effects of mechanical packaging, assembly tolerances, thermal behavior, contamination, calibration, electronics, and software processing on optical performance. • Support manufacturing process development, assembly, end-of-line testing, calibration, yield improvement, and correlation between development and production measurement systems. • Support customer escalations, field investigations, design-validation issues, and structured corrective-action activities using disciplined problem-solving methods.

Technical Leadership and Capability Building • Serve as a technical resource and subject-matter expert for camera optics, optical characterization, image-quality analysis, and test methodology. • Mentor engineers and technicians in optical measurement techniques, data interpretation, laboratory practices, and structured problem solving. • Drive continuous-improvement initiatives that increase optical test efficiency, technical depth, repeatability, and organizational capability. • Provide clear, data-based technical recommendations to internal leadership, cross-functional teams, suppliers, and customers. • Contribute to optical technology roadmaps, lessons learned, standard methods, reusable tools, and knowledge transfer across global engineering teams. • Perform other duties as necessary

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