Optical Engineer
Posted 1 Oct 2026
Advertised as “Senior Optical Engineer”
BranchFactor Summary
The original posting with the fluff stripped out
- Management level
- Individual contributor
- Employment
- Hybrid
- Contract
- Full-time
No salary listed for this role.
Field of studyElectrical Engineering, Optical Engineering, Physics
Study levelMaster's or higher
We are looking for a Senior Optical Engineer to design the optics behind our products for defence and automotive, based at our Helsinki HQ. At Distance, traditional and computational optics are designed together, so you get to solve problems with both, not just with glass. And your work won't stop at a simulation: you'll see your designs go from the screen to manufactured parts to the lab bench.
WHY DISTANCE?
At Distance Technologies, the problem we're solving is simple to state and hard to solve: the amount of data in the world is endless, but human capacity is not. We are building a fundamentally new perception layer between humans and machines, transforming transparent surfaces into interfaces unlike the world has ever seen. Think of the windscreen of a car, the visor of a helmet, or a sight device, each becoming a new front-end for AI. The way we turn bits and atoms into expanded human perception is protected by over 50 granted international patent families. We build it for two demanding worlds: defense and automotive. And we build it from a single foundation fusing software, hardware and computational optics.
There are over 50 of us today, with decade-long experience building world's best products, optics, and open-source operating systems. We partner and build with globally leading companies like KIA, FORVIA HELLA, Supacat, and Galvion, and we were Google Ventures' first investment in Finland. What we're building is hard, and will fundamentally change how we operate and see the world, and that's exactly why we seek exceptional people who enjoy building things never seen before.
THE ROLE
You'll join a small team of experienced optical engineers within our hardware team, working on optical design across our products, from the first architecture to parts that end up in the actual products. In the beginning, much of your work will relate to products like our Field Operator HUD (FOH). Alongside the optics team, you'll work closely with the rest of hardware, the wider R&D organisation and project management, and split your time between simulation, the lab and our manufacturing partners.