Optical Process Senior Technician

Role Purpose

Help shape the future of advanced manufacturing as a Senior Process Development Technician in Corning’s Advanced Optics group based in Rochester, NY. In collaboration with other technicians, engineers, and scientists, you will be working on hands-on innovation in high-precision optical fabrication—developing and optimizing advanced processes for mirrors, lenses, and freeform optics used in next-generation semiconductor inspection systems. You will be tackling complex challenges in sub-aperture polishing, CNC machining, and metrology, collaborating with experts across R&D and manufacturing. Join a passionate, collaborative team where your technical expertise will drive real-world impact and push the boundaries of what’s possible in optics.

The role involves developing innovative optical manufacturing technologies for high-precision optical elements and expanding manufacturing capabilities to meet customer demands for more complex and performant optical systems.

Key Responsibilities

• Drive development and optimization of advanced polishing processes for glass, crystals, and a range of optical substrates on flats, spheres, aspheres, and freeforms.
• Identify and assess technical risks and challenges for both prototype and commercial opportunities.
• Operate and maintain CNC optical fabrication platforms and conventional polishing platforms to manufacture prototype optics for cutting-edge optical systems for semiconductor equipment customers.
• Analyze experimental results, document, and communicate results to peers, management, and technology partners.
• Maintain detailed records of operations and observations.
• Assist engineers in building new manufacturing platforms or evaluate performance of commercially available fabrication equipment.

Experiences/Education - Required

• Minimum 2 year (AAS) technical degree from an accredited institution (optics or similar discipline) 
• Minimum 3 years of optical manufacturing and metrology industry experience.
• Experienced executing optical fabrication processes.
• Hands-on experience building, setting up, maintaining and operating optical fabrication equipment from grinding to final figuring.
• Interpret and understand optics requirements from drawings or requirements lists.
• Ability to lay out fabrication process steps from optics drawings requirements.
• Can define/design tooling required for optics fabrication.
• Knowledgeable about sub-aperture polishing processes (examples: ADAPT, Zeeko, MRF, IBF).
• Basic knowledge of interferometry and microscopy.
• Document test results and present to a technical audience.