Chief Engineer
US$180,000 / yr base salary
Posted 19 Sep 2026
Advertised as “Chief Engineer (Optical Comms)”
BranchFactor Summary
The original posting with the fluff stripped out
- Expected experience
- 6+ yrs
- Management level
- Individual contributor
- Employment
- On-Site
- Contract
- Full-time
| Base salary | US$180,000 / yr |
|---|
Field of studyElectrical Engineering, Optics, Physics
Study levelMaster's or higher
About Apolink
Apolink is building the first-ever backward-compatible data relay constellation in low Earth orbit. By enabling efficient data aggregation and relay through our hybrid RF-optical inter-satellite link (ISL) architecture, we support scalable and resilient space infrastructure across commercial, federal, and defense applications.
About The Role:
The Chief Engineer (Optical) is the company’s technical lead for optical communications across our LEO data relay constellation. They own the optical architecture, requirements, link design, and verification, and lead technical decisions with our optical terminal vendor. The vendor handles terminal manufacturing, while this role remains hands-on with analysis, integration, and testing. This is a sole-contributor leadership role.
Responsibilities:
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Own optical ISL and feeder-link architecture: wavelength plan, modulation and coding, aperture and divergence sizing, data rate vs range tradespace.
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Develop and maintain end-to-end optical link budgets, including coherent receiver sensitivity, PAT margin, platform jitter, point-ahead, Doppler, stray light, fade statistics, and BER against realistic FEC.
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Author optical requirements and ICDs, and manage flowdown to the vendor and to internal bus, flight software, and ground teams.
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Direct the vendor technically: down-select, diligence, SOW and NRE scoping, design review participation, and accountability for performance and schedule.
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Adjudicate R&D direction with the vendor; what warrants NRE investment, what is technically unviable, what we buy versus co-develop.
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May lead a ZR-800G-class coherent transceiver NRE with the optical terminal.
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Maintain compliance with applicable standards, including CCSDS O3K and SDA OCT where relevant to federal programs.
Qualifications:
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Direct, hands-on experience with LEO-LEO optical inter-satellite links: designing, building, or verifying crosslink terminals between spacecraft in low Earth orbit.
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6+ years in free-space optical communications, coherent optical transport, or spaceborne photonics.
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MS or PhD in optics, EE, or physics, or equivalent demonstrated depth.
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Demonstrated experience directing vendor technical performance and NRE programs.
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Capacity to exercise independent technical judgment as the sole optical authority and be accountable for it.