Senior Laser Development Physicist

Location: Rehovot

A leading company in its field, with sites in Israel and globally, specializing in the development, manufacturing, and sales of unique electro-optical systems for world-leading tier-1 companies, is seeking an experienced Physicist for advanced laser system development.

We are looking for a Physicist with substantial experience in laser development who combines deep physics insight with strong engineering and practical execution capabilities. The ideal candidate can take a physical concept or requirement from analysis and design through experimentation, integration, and performance validation in a fully functioning system.

This is a hands-on development role, combining design and analysis with practical laboratory work, experiments, alignments, troubleshooting, and system integration. You will join a broad multidisciplinary R&D team and collaborate closely with system, optics, electronics, electrical, mechanical, thermal, control, software, and integration engineers.

Responsibilities

• Physical and optical development and design of electro-optical subsystems.

• Collaborating on the definition of laser architecture and physical solutions according to system performance requirements.

• Performing physical and optical calculations and analyses.

• Designing optical chains, managing optical power, beam quality, stability, efficiency, and thermal effects.

• Selecting and adapting laser sources, optical components, fibers, and fiber-optic components.

• Planning experiments and proofs-of-concept (PoC) to evaluate solutions and mitigate technological risks.

• Setting up and aligning laser systems and optical experiments in the laboratory.

• Characterizing performance, analyzing results, and drawing conclusions for design iteration.

• Performing troubleshooting and root-cause analysis of physical, optical, and system failures.

• Actively participating in subsystem integration and overall system performance verification.

• Partnering in defining requirements and interfaces for electronics, power, cooling, control, and mechanical systems.

• Authoring design documentation, specifications, test reports, and Verification & Validation (V&V) documents.

• Supporting the transition from development to production, as well as maintaining and upgrading existing systems.

Requirements

• M.Sc. in Physics – Mandatory.

• Ph.D. in relevant fields – Significant advantage.

• Extensive, proven experience in laser system development.

• Substantial hands-on experience working in a laser laboratory.

• Deep understanding of laser physics and optics.

• Experience in setting up and characterizing complex optical and electro-optical systems.

• Strong ability to translate physical models into practical engineering solutions.

• Experience in experiment design, measurement, data analysis, and performance verification.

• Experience working in a multidisciplinary environment – Significant advantage.

• Experience with high-power lasers, fiber lasers, solid-state lasers, optical amplifiers, or beam delivery systems – Significant advantage.

• Familiarity with cooling systems, power systems, control, and laser safety – Advantage.

Candidate Profile

• We are looking for a physicist who loves building and developing, not just conducting pure research.

• A professional with strong physical curiosity, solid analytical thinking, and a practical mindset—equally comfortable working with theoretical models/calculations and hands-on with open hardware on the optical bench.

• Well-suited for someone who enjoys tackling complex, open-ended problems that often push the boundaries of physical and technological limits.

• Able to take an open problem, analyze it, propose alternatives, perform trade-offs between performance, risks, cost, and timelines, and drive the solution through to complete implementation and verification.

• Requires a combination of technical depth, creativity, autonomy, teamwork, and the ability to operate in a demanding and dynamic environment.

• High degree of personal accountability and full ownership of tasks—from understanding requirements and physics concepts through design and testing to a stable, reproducible system that meets all targets.

Reporting to: Physics Domain Manager