Senior Research Engineer (Optical Inspection)

Location: On-site in Woodbury, Minnesota, at least four days per week. Travel may include up to 10% domestic or international travel.

Company: hirify.global develops products, technologies, and manufacturing solutions across global markets.

What you will do

• Develop optical inspection and metrology methods for optics-related parts used in advanced product and process applications.
• Design, build, and validate benchtop inspection systems for detecting, characterizing, and quantifying defects and quality attributes.
• Apply optical engineering, imaging, and machine vision principles using transmitted and reflected light, bright field, dark field, polarization, structured illumination, and other contrast mechanisms.
• Develop image acquisition, analysis, and data interpretation workflows to improve defect sensitivity, repeatability, and method capability.
• Partner with R&D, process and product development, quality, manufacturing, and equipment teams to define requirements and transfer methods from laboratory concepts through manufacturing implementation.
• Design experiments, analyze data, conduct measurement systems analysis and gauge capability studies, support equipment projects, troubleshooting, root cause analysis, technical documentation, and quality-system compliance.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree or higher in science or engineering from an accredited university plus five years of experience in optical inspection, optical metrology, machine vision, imaging systems, glass characterization, or related technical work; or a Ph.D. in Optical Engineering, Physics, Materials Science, Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, or Imaging Science.
• Experience developing, evaluating, or implementing inspection or metrology methods for manufactured parts, components, materials, or optical systems.
• Experience with experimental design, technical problem solving, and data analysis.
• Strong understanding of optical inspection principles, including illumination design, lens and camera selection, resolution, contrast, polarization, depth of field, and signal-to-noise optimization.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills, including clear method documentation and communication of technical findings to cross-functional teams.
• Must be legally authorized to work in the United States without sponsorship for employment visa status.

Nice to have

• Ph.D. with research emphasis in optical inspection, optical metrology, machine vision, imaging science, or related fields.
• Experience detecting and characterizing scratches, chips, cracks, inclusions, contamination, edge defects, coating defects, cosmetic defects, and dimensional variation.
• Experience designing and building benchtop optical inspection or metrology systems.
• Experience specifying, evaluating, or deploying production inspection equipment in manufacturing environments.
• Experience supporting capital equipment projects, including equipment requirements, vendor interactions, acceptance criteria, and startup support.
• Experience with machine vision systems, industrial cameras, optics, and image processing workflows.
• Experience with Python, OpenCV, MATLAB, LabVIEW, Minitab, or equivalent tools.
• Experience with Zemax or similar optical design and modeling software.

Culture & Benefits

• Work in a collaborative environment with R&D, manufacturing, quality, product development, and equipment teams.
• Support technical rigor, continuous improvement, safety, and applicable quality-system requirements.
• Relocation assistance may be authorized.
• Benefits may include medical, dental and vision coverage, health savings and flexible spending accounts, disability and life insurance, paid absences, and retirement benefits.
• Compensation is listed as $124,127–$151,710, including base pay plus variable incentive pay where eligible.