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Head of Product & Engineering / Optical Measurement (Technical Successor)

NYC / NJ Area | $200,000 – $250,000 + Meaningful Long-Term Financial Participation

ENGAGED SEARCH OCTOBER 2026

The Opportunity: Shape Your Legacy as a Technical Leader

Are you a hands-on generalist who thrives technically at the intersection of physics, optics, electronics, and software? Do you want to step out of the corporate grind and truly own a product platform?

This is a rare, career-defining opportunity to succeed the original Founder and Chief Scientist of a highly successful niche optical instrument technology company. We are looking for a brilliant optical instrumentation generalist, most likely possessing a PhD, to step into this pivotal role. Over the next few years, you will work side-by-side with the founder to master our client’s core platform, absorb decades of deep industry knowledge, and smoothly transition into the company’s top technical leader as the founder steps back into a less active role.

You won’t just be managing a team—you will be the guardian of a world-class technology platform and the architect of its next generation of growth.

About the Company

Our client is the undisputed world leader in a highly specialized field of metrology, utilizing unique optical instrumentation that captures critical, hard-to-obtain data.

• Proven Success: Since 1980, more than 1,300 of their instruments have been deployed to labs and customers across 45 countries.
• Critical Technology: Their flagship systems are vital to industries like photonics, semiconductors, polymers, displays, LEDs, and precision optics. They also possess the only commercially available system capable of measuring loss in planar optical waveguides.
• Small & Profitable: Operating as a lean, profitable team of five, they have a massive global footprint and an incredibly loyal customer base. They are perfectly poised for significant, sustainable growth in the years ahead.

What You Will Do

As the Head of Product & Engineering / Optical Measurement, you will wear both strategic and hands-on technical hats:

• Master the Platform: Work directly with the founder to institutionalize decades of specialized engineering and applied physics knowledge.
• Drive R&D & Engineering: Own the product lifecycle from core physical principles and optical alignment to electronics, software updates, and mechanical design.
• Lead Next-Gen Development: Guide the product line into the future to meet the growing demands of emerging global tech industries.
• Support a Global Base: Ensure the continued reliability and precision of instruments relied upon by top-tier universities, research labs, and industrial giants worldwide.

Who You Are

We are looking for a highly capable generalist who loves “hard tech”, still enjoys being technical and prefers a nimble, highly profitable small-team environment over corporate bureaucracy. Your background should reflect a deep blend of the following attributes and technical capabilities:

Education & Core Domain Expertise

• Academic Background: You are a brilliant optical instrumentation generalist, most likely an MS or a PhD in Applied Physics, Optical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, or a closely related field.
• Physics & Optics Fundamentals: You have a strong grasp of foundational physics alongside hands-on experience with lasers and optical systems or instruments.
• Analog Electronics: You have some understanding of analog circuitry, knowledge of op amps and photodetector amplifiers helpful.
• Digital Circuits & Microcontrollers: You understand simple digital design, and any experience with embedded systems or assembly programming is a major plus.
• PC Software Development: You are comfortable working with high-level PC software development to tie hardware components together.
• Mechanical Design: You possess the practical skills to handle mechanical layouts and directly specify parts for fabrication.
• Industry Context: You maintain a general familiarity with thin-film deposition and planar processing techniques on silicon or other substrates.

Leadership & Cross-Disciplinary Strengths

• System-Level Reasoning: You can seamlessly reason across optics, electronics, software, mechanics, cost, and manufacturability to solve complex design challenges.
• Knowledge Custodian: You possess the patience and rigorous documentation skills required to download, organize, and institutionalize decades of unstructured engineering knowledge.
• Customer-Facing Communicator: You are comfortable interacting with global academic, research, and industrial clients to troubleshoot deep technical and applications issues.
• Ready for Leadership: You possess the emotional intelligence, maturity, and technical credibility required to seamlessly step into a founder’s shoes over time.

What’s In It For You?

• Compensation: A base salary in the $200,000 – $250,000 range, commensurate with experience.
• Financial Upside: This role includes the unique possibility for meaningful, long-term financial participation in the company’s financial success as you transition into full technical leadership.
• Impact & Autonomy: The chance to lead an established global market leader with zero corporate red tape.