Also called: Lens Designer, Optical Design Engineer
Designs the lenses inside cameras, phones, telescopes, microscopes, and VR headsets.
You sit with lens design software like Zemax or CODE V, stacking virtual pieces of glass and watching how rays of light focus. You trade off sharpness, size, weight, and cost, then hand the design to a factory and test the first real lenses when they arrive. One project might be a phone camera; the next, a lens for a satellite.
Approximate: anchored on Bureau of Labor Statistics data for a broader job group.
Master's degree, about 6 years after high school. Bachelor's in optics, physics, or engineering; many have a master's in optical sciences (University of Arizona and University of Rochester are famous for it).
Ways in: 4-year college, Graduate school. Training cost: $15k – $60k.
Majors to look at: Optical Engineering, Optical Sciences, Physics, Mechanical Engineering.
Growing faster than average. Demand driven by phone cameras, AR/VR, autonomous vehicles, and defense; not projected separately by BLS.
Medium risk in 5 years, high in 10. AI optimizers now generate lens designs from specs in hours; fewer designers per product, with tradeoff judgment staying human.
Classes: AP Physics, AP Calculus, Geometry.
Official data: O*NET occupation 17-2199.
Career Universe is an early version. Pay, training and AI-risk figures are estimates to start your own research, not verified facts. The research was written with AI research assistants, checked by validation scripts and spot-checked by hand. Check anything important with schools, employers and official sources. How the numbers work.