Thin Film Coating Engineer – E-Beam, IAD, DLC & Infrared Optics

Location: Bandon, Oregon

Work Arrangement: Onsite

Relocation Assistance: Available

Hardin Optical Company is seeking an accomplished Thin Film Coating Engineer with extensive, hands-on experience in physical vapor deposition, electron-beam evaporation, ion-assisted deposition (IAD), diamond-like carbon (DLC), and infrared optical coatings.

Our Thin Films department produces precision optical coatings across an extensive spectral range—from ultraviolet wavelengths below 225 nm through visible, near-infrared, short-wave infrared, mid-wave infrared, and long-wave infrared applications up to 12 µm. Our capabilities include antireflection coatings, beam splitter coatings, reflective metallic coatings, solderable gold, aluminum, and highly durable DLC coatings.

This is not a general manufacturing engineering position. We need an experienced optical coating professional capable of providing both technical and operational leadership. The successful candidate will guide coating design, process development, vacuum-deposition operations, troubleshooting, production performance, and continuous improvement while assisting in mentoring and developing our Thin Films Technicians.

What You’ll Do:

As our Thin Film Coating Engineer, you will provide advanced technical expertise while supporting coating design, process development, troubleshooting, and continuous improvement within the Thin Films department.

Your responsibilities will include:

• Provide technical leadership support for e-beam evaporation, IAD, DLC, and related PVD coating processes.
• Design, develop, optimize, and troubleshoot optical coatings across UV, visible, NIR, SWIR, MWIR, and LWIR wavelength ranges.
• Develop and refine multilayer AR, BBAR, V-coat, beam splitter, metallic, and DLC coating processes.
• Translate optical coating designs and customer specifications into stable, repeatable, production-ready processes.
• Establish and optimize deposition parameters, chamber conditions, layer thicknesses, tooling, substrate preparation, optical monitoring, and process controls.
• Lead technical investigations involving spectral-performance deviations, coating defects, adhesion failures, environmental-test failures, equipment problems, and process variation.
• Analyze coating, metrology, and production data to improve yield, repeatability, throughput, cost, and cycle time.
• Support the operation, maintenance, calibration, qualification, and continuous improvement of vacuum-deposition systems.
• Assist in supervising, coaching, training, and develop Thin Films Technicians.
• Assist in planning production schedules and allocate personnel, equipment, and chamber capacity to meet quality and delivery requirements.
• Develop, maintain, and improve coating recipes, manufacturing work instructions, process specifications, and technical documentation.
• Review and approve process changes to protect product quality, consistency, repeatability, and traceability.
• Partner with Sales and Engineering to evaluate customer drawings and coating specifications and provide technical input for RFQs and RFPs.
• Collaborate with Quality and Manufacturing on new-product introduction, root-cause investigations, corrective actions, and continuous improvement.
• Support applicable MIL-SPEC testing, customer requirements, and the organization’s Quality Management System.

Inspection and Testing:

The Thin Films department uses specialized metrology and environmental testing to verify spectral performance and coating durability.

Metrology equipment includes:

• PerkinElmer LAMBDA 950 for UV-VIS-NIR measurement
• PerkinElmer Spectrum 100 Optica for MWIR-LWIR measurement

Coating durability testing includes:

• Adhesion
• Moderate and severe abrasion
• Salt solubility
• Salt spray and salt fog
• Humidity
• Temperature cycling
• Sand slurry wiper testing
• Other applicable customer and MIL-SPEC testing

Required Qualifications:

• At least 7 years of professional experience in optical thin-film coating engineering, vacuum-deposition process development, or optical coating manufacturing.
• Extensive hands-on experience with electron-beam evaporation and PVD coating systems.
• Demonstrated knowledge of ion-assisted deposition and its application to optical coating performance and durability.
• Demonstrated experience developing, depositing, optimizing, or troubleshooting infrared optical coatings.
• Experience with optical coatings used in one or more of the SWIR, MWIR, or LWIR wavelength ranges.
• Strong knowledge of multilayer optical coating design, deposition processes, coating materials, substrate preparation, process controls, and thin-film failure mechanisms.
• Experience moving coating designs and processes from development into stable, repeatable production.
• Ability to diagnose coating defects, spectral deviations, adhesion failures, durability-test failures, vacuum-system problems, and process instability.
• Experience interpreting spectrophotometer, FTIR, or other optical metrology results.
• Experience working with infrared optical substrates such as silicon, germanium, zinc sulfide, or zinc selenide.
• Fundamental experience handling and preparing precision optical components, including the visual acuity, manual dexterity, and attention to detail required for meticulous cleaning and coating preparation.
• Experience using thin-film coating design or modeling software.
• Experience leading technical employees, production teams, or complex cross-functional projects.
• Bachelor’s degree in Physics, Optical Engineering, Materials Science, Chemical Engineering, or a closely related technical field—or an equivalent combination of education and directly relevant experience.

Highly Preferred Qualifications:

• Direct experience developing or manufacturing DLC coatings.
• Experience with 3–5 µm MWIR or 8–12 µm LWIR coating applications.
• Experience with LAMBDA-series spectrophotometers, FTIR equipment, or comparable UV-through-LWIR metrology systems.
• Experience performing or evaluating MIL-SPEC coating durability testing.
• Experience with large optical components ranging from approximately 340 mm to 400 mm.
• Experience with optical monitoring, quartz crystal monitoring, vacuum-system maintenance, chamber conditioning, or coating-equipment qualification.
• Experience supporting aerospace, defense, thermal imaging, infrared sensing, or other high-reliability optical applications.
• Experience working within an ISO 9001 or similarly controlled manufacturing environment.
• Knowledge of Lean Manufacturing, structured root-cause analysis, and continuous improvement.

What Success Looks Like:

The successful candidate will bring deep technical knowledge of optical coatings, vacuum deposition, and infrared applications. This person will take a hands-on approach to solving production problems, strengthening process control, developing technicians, and improving coating performance and repeatability.

Success in this position means establishing reliable, scalable coating processes that consistently meet demanding spectral, environmental, durability, quality, and delivery requirements.

Why Join Hardin Optical?

• Lead a highly specialized optical coating operation.
• Work across UV, visible, and infrared optical applications.
• Influence coating technology, process development, equipment capabilities, and manufacturing performance.
• Directly contribute to complex precision optical products and customer solutions.
• Partner with an experienced and collaborative leadership team.
• Receive relocation assistance when moving to the Bandon, Oregon area.
• Access continued professional development and advancement opportunities.

Benefits:

• 401(k)
• Medical, dental, and vision insurance
• Health savings and flexible spending accounts
• Life insurance
• Employee assistance program
• Paid time off
• Parental leave
• Professional development assistance
• Relocation assistance
• Retirement plan

ITAR Eligibility:

This position requires access to information or items regulated by the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR). Applicants must qualify as a “U.S. Person” as defined by ITAR, 22 CFR §120.62. This includes U.S. citizens, lawful permanent residents, and certain protected individuals as defined by federal law.

Work Location: In person in Bandon, Oregon. Remote and hybrid arrangements are not available.