Job Description

Join an innovative team of technology experts and product visionaries to launch disruptive Augmented Reality (AR) products. Kura patented technology overcomes multiple barriers to the practical widespread adoption of AR. It’s an exciting time at Kura as we gear up to make a high impact with our initial product launch. We are looking for like-minded innovators who thrive in a small team fast-paced environment. Kura is making standalone enterprise and consumer-facing AR glasses and systems with 150-degree field of view, 8K resolution, and 95% transparent eyepiece enabled by proprietary display and optics technology.

Kura AR Website: https://kura.tech

Code-V Optical Engineer/lead 

Become Kura’s optical engineer/lead and help in advancing Kura’s patented optical technologies and design of implementation for Kura’s signature product. This could lead to one of Kura’s lead optical engineer roles according to the milestone finish and performance. 

Responsibilities 

• Design and optimize optical systems and architecture for the Kura AR device in CodeV, LightTool, Virtuallab Fusion, and related tools
• The design varies prototypes, experiments, testing, and design for manufacturing optical systems and working along with those designs to physical prototypes and products in Kura’s timeline
• Optical simulation and optimization for near-eye display, using industrial and perception standard and requirements, for performance including but not limited to diffractive MTF, stray light, aberrations, distortion, contracts, resolution, and more
• Explore different optical system design approaches with optical simulation software, analyze results, determine manufacturing feasibility, and select the best design implementation
• Work on optical components comparison, testing, design for manufacturing for a customized display with a high-resolution image source
• Work with manufacturers prototyping (diamond turning, etc.), and production (injection molding, etc.) shops. Integrate feedback into optical optimization for best design and DFM
• Work with the team to assemble prototypes, and test system performance
• Work with team to experiment with prototype process, and help on improving the process and scaling it to teamwork
• Run tolerance analysis on the optical system design, optimizing it for manufacturing and assembly process
• Generate engineering and manufacturing drawings
• Generating statement of work (SOW) for engineering team, consultants, and collaborators
• Work with Kura’s team to draft design workflows for various designs for optical engineers
• Work with other engineers and collaborators including optomechanical engineers, mechanical engineers, technicians, manufacturing engineers to optimize design, build prototypes, etc.

Leadership Responsibilities

• Evaluate design and product objectives according to Kura’s timeline, help plan tasks and needed resources
• As the optical lead, oversee the technical performance of the full Kura optical system
• Coordinate the technical work of several optical contributors, aligning contributions toward a common goal and performance spec
• Work with Kura’s team’s existing design path and optimize for the best design practices including simulation, design reviews, prototyping, DFM reviews, documentation, and structured validation methodology
• Oversee the outsourcing of prototype fabrication and internal verification methodology
• Optical point-of-contact for providing information and guidance to optical tooling and Kura manufacturing facilities. Participate in qualifying facilities and oversee the optical verification methodology as we test and verify initial production prototypes
• Interview, source, and come with interview and process and questions with Kura’s team for new optical engineers and related recruiting 
• Working with Kura on patent and IP filing in process of design

Qualifications

• M.S/Ph.D. in a top Optical Engineering Master program from one of the top schools, including but not limited to the University of Rochester, University of Arizona, etc. 
• Top proficiency and at least 5+ years experience of daily work use of CodeV
• Very hands-on in optical architect, design, simulation, optimization, working with various constraints and design for manufacturing in CodeV, this is not an analysis engineering and hands-on design engineering role that can work along with a tight timeline and changes 
• Proficiency in optimization using CodeV
• Experience and proficiency in macro language and use in lens design in CodeV
• Experience in lens design and tolerancing using both glass and plastic optical materials
• Experience and top proficiency in optical CAD (CodeV, Zemax, LightTools, VirtualLab, etc.), optimization, programming to model and refine sequential/non-sequential optical systems
• Experience and good at free-form optical design, and high order optimization using CodeV
• Experience and solid practical knowledge on basic diffractive optics design and working principles and experience with diffractive, kinoform lens design in optical design software such as Virtuallab Fusion, Zemax, CodeV, Lumerical, etc. 
• Highly hands-on and efficient in optical design, optimization, MTF performance analysis, architect a design from scratch or modify existing designs in CodeV. 
• Ability and experience in generating standard optical drawings, manuals, and CAD files from CodeV, Solidworks, and communicating with manufacturing, make modifications based on manufacturing tolerance, process, factories, and design. 
• Experience and hands-on with designing for performance requirements emphasizing MTF, stray light analysis, aberration, geometric distortion, light efficiency, and others. in CodeV
• Experience with prototyping and production manufacturers including both domestic and international to deliver interaction design units and mass production product
• Good understanding of optomechanical principles and have worked with a mechanical or opto-mechanical engineer to finish an overall optical system
• Good understanding of optical performance metric in both simulations and test
• Solid background in applied physics, math
• Thrive in a fast-paced and lean environment
• Ability to innovate, work with unknown, and solving technical challenges
• Experience or familiarity with optical design spec, especially HMD and semiconductor optics, system setup, performance analysis, and calibration method and machines
• Had some of your previous optical designs already in manufacturing, or production or on the market, understanding, and experience the workflow
• Ability to work full-time, in-person, and start working in the near term if hired

Additional Qualifications (a plus)

• Basic programming languages, i.e. C/C++, Python, Matlab (a plus)
• Basic knowledge and experience with some CAD software, ideally Solidworks, or Autodesk (a plus)
• Experience in optical manufacturing diamond turning, grinding, and injection molding
• Knowledge or background in an optical material, liquid crystal, or spatial light modulators
• Experience with diffractive optics using Virtual Lab or other tools/manufacturing process
• Experience in semiconductor, nano-fabrication, or related industries
• Experience with overseas manufacturing partners, with potential for on-site visits 
• Experience designing and manufacturing Augmented Reality or Virtual Reality optics
• 3+ years of full-time experience working in the industry as a professional optical engineer using CodeV, Zemax, and other professional optical design, simulation, and optimization tools

Contact: careers@kura.tech