Counted October 17, 2026 · from employers’ own postings
Optical Engineer: $168K median posted pay.
From 24 salary bands employers posted on 35 open optical engineer roles in engineering. Never an estimate.
The ladder, by level
What each rung pays.
| Level | Open roles | Median posted band | Middle half |
|---|---|---|---|
| Senior | 10 | — (7 of 8 bands) | — |
| Principal | 5 | — (4 of 8 bands) | — |
| Staff | 2 | — (2 of 8 bands) | — |
| Intern | 1 | — (0 of 8 bands) | — |
| Mid | 1 | — (0 of 8 bands) | — |
Levels as the postings name them. A rung shows a median only where eight or more postings at that level carried a band.
Who is hiring
The employers with the most open.
| Employer | Open roles | Entry level |
|---|---|---|
| SpaceX | 6 | — |
| Northrop Grumman | 3 | — |
| Monarch Quantum | 3 | — |
| Atom Computing | 3 | — |
| KLA | 2 | — |
| Rocket Lab | 2 | — |
| K2 Space | 1 | — |
| Marvell | 1 | — |
| Observable Space | 1 | — |
| Exowatt | 1 | — |
Counted from employers’ own job boards. The ten with the most open optical engineer roles tonight.
The skills, as the postings name them
What these postings ask for.
| Skill | Postings | At entry |
|---|---|---|
| Physics | 26 | — |
| Python | 18 | — |
| Assembly Line Work | 10 | — |
| C | 10 | — |
| Mechanical Engineering | 8 | — |
| Investigation | 7 | — |
| Component Testing | 7 | — |
| Electrical Engineering | 7 | — |
| Supply Chain Coordination | 6 | — |
| Equipment Calibration | 6 | — |
Where the work is
0% of these roles are remote.
- Remote0%0 roles
- Hybrid3%1 roles
- On site94%33 roles
- Not stated3%1 roles
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How this was counted
Every figure is counted from 35 open postings read from employers’ own job boards on October 17, 2026, and recounted every night. Pay is the band the employer posted — never an estimate, never a model — and 24 of these postings carried one. Titles are grouped by the words the postings use, with levels, shifts and schedules removed, so “Senior Optical Engineer (Nights)” counts here too. 100% of roles with this title sit in engineering, which is why this page belongs to that career. A title gets a page only where twenty-five or more roles are open, eight or more of them posted a band, three or more employers are hiring for it and four in five of its postings sit in one career, so no page here is a guess.