Lead Optical Engineer (Austin, TX)

🏢 Exowatt · 📍 Austin, TX · 💼 onsite · ⏰ Full-time

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Position Summary & Responsibilities

Exowatt is revolutionizing the energy landscape for the AI era with our groundbreaking P3 system that captures solar energy, stores it as heat, and generates electricity on demand. Founded in 2023 and backed by leading investors including Andreessen Horowitz, Sam Altman, and Felicis, we're committed to providing clean, modular, and scalable power that meets the rapidly growing demands of AI infrastructure. Our mission is to make sustainable renewable energy always available and almost free, enabling technological advancement while protecting our planet.

We are seeking a highly skilled and motivated Lead Optical Engineer to own concentrator design, optical testing, and model validation for the P3. In this role, you will design and optimize non-imaging optics for maximum flux transfer, build and automate optical test setups, validate models against on-sun performance, and work across the optic-to-thermal boundary that defines the P3 architecture. You will collaborate closely with the Optical Product Development, R&D, and thermal teams to ensure alignment between design intent, test outcomes, and delivered system performance.

Non-imaging concentrating optics experience is required for this role.

This position is based in Austin, TX preferred, however an alternate location of Miami, FL is possible for the right candidate. If hired for this role, relocation to one of these sites is required. We provide relocation assistance.

🎯 Candidate Preparation Guide For Exowatt Applicants

Key Role Competencies & Evaluation Highlights

Key Role Focus:

Evaluates extreme first-principles engineering capability, hardware velocity, and an unyielding bias for action in energy infrastructure.

📋 Preparation Priorities (Key Areas to Clarify):

1. Prioritizing theoretical perfection over speed-to-market and cost reduction
2. Sounding overly bureaucratic or reliant on massive enterprise teams to get things done
3. Lacking fundamental intuition for physical systems and energy generation

✨ Recommended Role Alignment Hook:

I build energy hardware the way software companies build features—iterating weekly, obsessed with cutting the cost of thermal storage to zero.

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