About us

Aquila is a fast-growing startup developing dynamic, wireless optical energy networking to power sectors underserved by traditional grid infrastructure—think electric aircraft charged in-flight that never have to land… or mines bustling with cool robotics and powered by wireless energy networks—the possibilities are endless! We're backed by some of the best investors in the world, such as Blackbird, Possible and Icehouse, and we're working with fantastic partners to develop novel and exciting capabilities.

We believe in the power of teamwork and collaboration. We are a dynamic and supportive team of Eagles sharing a passion for pushing the boundaries of what is possible. We're looking for exceptional people driven to power the future by solving first-class problems with world-class engineering. Everyone owns their work end-to-end. There's no need to deal with crazy legacy spaghetti where you have no idea why things were done "how they've always been done.”

At Aquila, we believe in shaping the role around the candidate and the team. As such, if there's a domain you do not fit into, please do not hesitate to apply anyway!

The role

As an optical engineer at Aquila, you will own our optical systems end to end. This means developing, calibrating, stabilising, and testing our optical components to perform as required to facilitate production readiness.

You will be responsible for implementing an advanced optical system with auto-calibration and auto-collimation with feedback interferometry through optical interlinks. This system will maintain safe and effective energy delivery to power Lightway Sentry, the first optical power-beaming product to launch. Lightway Sentry is a drone that can fly forever to establish aerial awareness and save lives in critical infrastructure, surf life-saving, and defence.

The role spans all elements of optical engineering: design, implementation, testing, and certification. This role will empower our successful candidate to invent the next networking layer that could transform society: safe, free-space optical energy networking.

Who we're looking for

Aquila seeks a highly skilled optical engineer to join our team. Successful candidates will

• Self-teach and learn on the job. We are doing something entirely new, so we must find out together and learn.

• Bring new technical insights and best practices from the industry into the company to help us learn.

• Contribute to the high-level systems and product architecture to ensure development contributes to the product requirements.

• Collaborate with the team to certify and productionise our world-first free space power-beaming technology.

Responsibilities

• Develop stabilised collimation and calibration systems to ensure continuous safety within tight tolerances.

• Implement optical feedback interlinks that actuate auto-collimation and calibration systems with high precision.

• Design and manufacture precision custom optics to facilitate tight feedback interlinks between the transmitter and receiver.

• Build hardware-the-loop testing rigs to guarantee stability and effectiveness over hundreds of hours of operation.

We love candidates with the following qualifications/aptitudes. Still, you don't need to meet them all — if you have a strong work ethic and a voracious hunger to solve first-class problems through developing world-class technology, we want you on our team.

• Evidence of exceptional skill in optics, particularly creating production optical technology

• Strong knowledge of optical and laser feedback systems to stabilise optical delivery mechanisms

• Experience working with precision optics with tight tolerances and performance requirements

• Signal processing and detection, such as interferometry or photodiode sensor integration

• Knowledge of high-power lasers, including safety standards

• Zemax or other optical simulation packages

Above all else, we hire candidates who deeply connect with

• Our Values

And are aligned with

• What we look for at Aquila

Aquila Perks & Benefits

• Everyone is an owner. In addition to excellent base compensation, every 'eagle' owns equity in the company, so we all benefit from our hard work and future success. Everyone is given a unique and epic eagle avatar upon signing the contract to join Aquila.

• Generous paid parental leave. We offer eight weeks of paid caregiver leave and an additional eight weeks of paid leave for the birthgiver.

• Relocation budget & support. Support for interstate or overseas team members and their families (including pets!)

• Flexible working hours and location. While we often enjoy shooting lasers around—with the utmost safety—in our fully decked-out laser facilities, if there are days when we can work from anywhere, then we feel free to work from anywhere!

• Generous Personal Leave. At Aquila, we recognise that sometimes you need time off to recuperate, look after your mental health, or deal with an emergency. We provide unlimited (within reason) personal leave to empower you to bring your best self to work every day, and you are always paid for days taken off as personal leave.

• We care about our people: At Aquila, we don't focus on what our people can do for us; we focus on what we can do for our people. As part of our commitment to our people, we provide an annual $2k budget for side projects, gizmos and gadgets you want to develop, skills you want to learn, and ways you want to grow outside work.

• Company-wide social events: monthly birthday celebrations, offsite hiking and/or skiing through beautiful Australian and Aotearoa landscapes, annual end-of-year celebrations, and much more!

• Great, decked-out office! An inclusive community and culture in a welcoming office—with lasers and cutting-edge hardware

• A variety of social clubs. We encourage all our Eagles to build the culture with us and share what they love by creating social clubs across the business. From rock climbing clubs to skiing and volunteering, we constantly seek ways to learn and engage with each other.

If you're a budding world-class optical engineer hungry to make a massive impact, we want to hear from you! Aquila welcomes applicants from all backgrounds and has around 1/3 female representation on our team. Join our team and help us build an infinitely scalable energy network that powers a more abundant, limitless, and sustainable future.