Imaging and Mechatronics Engineer

Provenance Laboratories | Santa Monica, CA | 100% Onsite

Open to full-time, part-time, consulting, or contract engagement

The Opportunity

Provenance Laboratories builds next-generation authentication systems for high-value goods. We’re hiring an Imaging and Mechatronics Engineer to own one of the systems those products are built on: the sensors, cameras, optics, lighting, and precision motion that turn a physical object into clean, trustworthy data.

This is a hands-on, full-stack systems role with a major software engineering component. You’ll calibrate and coordinate multi-axis motion and optics, push imaging quality to its limits, and engineer the system to capture the right image quickly and reproduce it identically run after run. You’ll own the performance and reliability of the system as a whole, driving root-cause analysis across tightly coupled hardware and software where the toughest failures don’t fall neatly on one side or the other.

What You’ll Work On

•     Own the full imaging acquisition stack, from sensors, optics, illumination, and motion to the software that ties them together, so the system reliably produces clean, analysis-ready images

•     Calibrate and coordinate multi-axis motion and optics: camera and illumination/laser positioning, focal targeting, part-loading geometry, and the spatial calibration that keeps measurements trustworthy

•     Engineer imaging quality and dynamic range for consistent, high-information captures across varied materials and finishes

•     Build and integrate motion control and collision avoidance into the live system flow, including motion planning for larger or awkward objects

•     Architect the capture-to-analysis pipeline for throughput, decoupling acquisition from downstream analysis so the system is never bottlenecked, backed by profiling and optimization

•     Make the system deterministic and validate its outputs, so the same object yields the same images, the same analysis, and the same results every time, and establish which metrics are genuinely repeatable and production-ready

•     Stand up the storage, processing, and configuration/template systems that let new measurements and object types be added quickly

•     Improve operator-facing workflow and usability: capture setup, automated routing to the right configuration, sensible naming and metadata, and clean operating modes

•     Handle the systems and operations work that keeps production units running: remote and local machine management, deployment, and uptime

What You’ll Bring

•     Strong systems-engineering judgment across coupled hardware and software, with a track record of root-causing failures that span sensors, optics, calibration, motion, and code

•     Strong, production-grade Python; this is a coding-heavy role, not a hardware-only one

•     Hands-on experience with imaging fundamentals: cameras and sensors, optics, illumination, exposure, dynamic range, and calibration

•     Real experience integrating and coordinating motion control and mechatronics (multi-axis stages, encoders, motion planning, collision avoidance) with software

•     A systems mindset for throughput, reliability, and reproducibility, with the instinct to profile, optimize, and remove bottlenecks

•     Comfort working at the seams between disciplines, where the hardest problems rarely fall cleanly into “hardware” or “software”

•     Ability to work independently and own ambiguous problems alongside a small, highly technical team

Nice to Have

•     Computational photography or imaging-science background

•     Linear stages, gantries, servo/stepper motion, or precision positioning and encoders

•     Remote device management, deployment, and edge/industrial system ops

•     Optics and illumination geometry (lenses, filters, lighting design)

•     Metrology, non-destructive imaging, or industrial inspection of high-value or delicate goods

Why Join Us?

•     Own a whole subsystem that directly determines whether the product works, with real leverage and end-to-end ownership

•     Solve genuinely cross-disciplinary problems at the intersection of optics, motion, sensors, and software

•     Small, highly technical team where your work ships to deployed machines, not slide decks

•     Flexible engagement: full-time, part-time, consulting, or contract

•     Competitive salary of $130,000-$165,000 for full-time hires, depending on experience; consulting and contract engagements offered at a competitive rate

Job Details

•     Location: Santa Monica, CA (100% onsite)

•     Type: Full-Time, Part-Time, Consultant, or Contractor

•     Travel: Must be able to travel

•     Experience: Senior preferred; exceptional candidates at other levels considered

•     Work Authorization: Must be authorized to work in the U.S. without employer visa sponsorship, now or in the future.

Apply directly through LinkedIn.