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Job Description

Overview

SPHERES INC. is an advanced manufacturing company focused on developing technologies and manufacturing capabilities across energy, materials, photonics, and other mission-critical applications. The Optical Engineer will work on tuning and optimizing fiber lasers for precision welding in various applications.

Responsibilities

  • Tune and optimize fiber lasers for precision welding of thin copper, aluminum, nickel, stainless steel, and related materials.
  • Optimize laser power, pulse characteristics, modulation, beam diameter, focal position, scanning speed, and energy distribution.
  • Develop repeatable welding parameter windows across different materials, thicknesses, and joint geometries.
  • Minimize spatter, porosity, distortion, burn-through, and excessive heat-affected zones.
  • Characterize beam quality, focus, spot size, power density, and optical alignment.
  • Configure and optimize focusing optics, collimators, beam delivery components, scanners, and protective optics.
  • Diagnose optical, thermal, and laser-material interaction issues.
  • Design experiments and evaluate weld quality through microscopy, cross-sections, electrical measurements, mechanical testing, and related methods.
  • Document optimized parameters and processes for transfer into manufacturing.

Requirements

  • Background in Optical Engineering, Physics, Photonics, Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, or a related discipline.
  • Hands-on experience with fiber lasers, industrial laser systems, or high-power laser processing.
  • Strong understanding of beam optics, focusing, beam propagation, power density, and laser-material interaction.
  • Experience with laser welding, cutting, micromachining, or precision materials processing.
  • Experience welding thin copper, aluminum, nickel, or dissimilar metals is highly desirable.
  • Familiarity with optical diagnostics, beam profilers, power meters, cameras, microscopes, and related instrumentation.
  • Experience designing or building custom laser systems is a significant plus.

Additional Information

  • Location: Gardena, California
  • Position Type: Contract
  • Work Arrangement: Primarily on-site due to hands-on laser development and testing.
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How this job compares in Gardena, CA

Pay in context

This employer didn't publish a rate. For reference, welding jobs across California currently run a median of $35/hr in our index, with the middle half of them falling between $28–$44/hr across 479 postings with published pay. That median is a reasonable floor to anchor on when a recruiter asks what you're looking for.

The local market in Gardena, CA

Gardena, CA currently has 6 other active welding openings besides this one, spread across 4 employers. 3 of them were added in the last week. Across California as a whole we're tracking 623 other active welding openings from 287 employers. That's enough local activity to be worth comparing two or three offers before committing. Browse every welding job in Gardena, or widen the search to California.

The most active employers in California at the moment, by number of open welding reqs, are SpaceX (34), Vast (22), and Relativity Space (20). Volume like that usually means either a genuine expansion or a staffing agency working several client sites — worth knowing which before you apply.

Within California, the best-paying metros we track by median hourly rate are Redondo Beach at $71/hr, Long Beach at $54/hr, and Torrance at $43/hr. If you can relocate or commute, that spread is worth factoring in.

Similar openings near Gardena, CA

Pay figures are medians computed from live postings in the Welding Pros index, not from survey data, and they move as employers post. Optical Engineer figures were last recalculated when this page was built.