Principal / Architect / Senior Optical Engineer

At Lace Lithography, we’re scaling up our team and looking for a passionate and sharp talent to join us.

In our company we build chip lithography technology that will enable the next 100 years of chip manufacturing. Founded in 2023, we’re based in Bergen (Norway), Eindhoven (The Netherlands) and Barcelona (Spain), and backed by some of the world’s most ambitious investors.

Lace Lithography is seeking a highly experienced Principal / Architect / Senior Optical Engineer to join our Engineering team (not AMO team). In this high-impact role, you will be responsible for optical architecture, definition and design of high-tech lithography systems. Working alongside physicists, chemists and developers, you will play a critical role in the development of high-end, complex optical systems to the highest standards of modern lithography technology from concept phase through development and delivery to the end customer, in partnership and collaboration with top international players in the industry.

This role is based in Barcelona (Spain) or Bergen (Norway), and will involve regular travel between our key locations throughout the year.

Key Responsibilities:

This list is not exhaustive; additional duties may be assigned as we grow.

• Own optical and optomechanical subsystems throughout their lifecycle—from requirements and architecture to production release and field support.
• Translate system objectives into optical specifications, interfaces, performance budgets and verification criteria.
• Lead the development of robust optomechanical solutions.
• Industrialize the design for manufacturing.
• Lead optical integration, verification and acceptance testing at subsystem and complete-tool level.
• Troubleshoot performance, yield and reliability problems using structured root-cause analysis.
• Maintain production documentation, including drawings, BOMs, interface definitions, alignment procedures, test specifications and change records.
• Collaborate with atomic physicists, mechanical, vacuum, controls, electronics, software and systems engineers across Lace’s departments.
• Manage technical relationships with optical-component suppliers and external development partners.
• Provide technical leadership through design reviews, risk management, mentoring and long-term optical technology roadmaps.
• Ensure compliance with engineering standards and semiconductor-equipment requirements such as SEMI S2.

Qualifications:

• University degree in physics or optical engineering-related field
• 10+ years experience developing complex and precision optical systems in a high-tech environment, from first principles to concept, industrialization and high-volume manufacturing, including ownership of system architecture, function or domain
• Expert knowledge in Requirements Engineering, System Engineering and Product development process
• Hands on as well as conceptual thinking, ability to deep dive and zoom out to system level
• Stakeholder management, ability to explain, trade-off and defend complex engineering decisions and choices
• Knowledge of Zemax, Code V, or similar SW

Our team here at Lace:

…consists of amazing people who’ve joined us from all over the world, driven by intense curiosity, the urge for exploration, and a desire to push the limits of physics. We promise to offer you a place among highly motivated Lacers, present you with extremely difficult problems—and have a lot of fun solving them.

Workplace & culture:

Lace operates out of two beautiful, vibrant, and strong-willed cities. Although we are cities apart, we strive to make the team feel as one.

We don’t define values—but we have one universal expectation:
Be the best team player you can be.

Perks and Benefits:

Part of the team, part of the company
Competitive salary + equity through our incentive plan.

️ Feel-good perks
€50 monthly gym allowance, weekly team lunches, monthly social events, and annual off-site with the whole team.

Personal Development
Quarterly development goals with your manager and your own budget to learn and grow.

️ No journey without travelling
We support relocation and immigration to make joining Lace as smooth as possible.