These are the ATS keywords, credentials, and software terms that recur across current optical engineer job descriptions — organized so you can scan for what your resume is missing. Placement matters as much as presence: an ATS keyword buried in a skills list ranks lower than the same term used in context inside an experience bullet.

Title variants

  • Optical Engineer
  • Senior Optical Engineer
  • Optical Systems Engineer
  • Photonics Engineer
  • Lens Design Engineer
  • Imaging Scientist
  • Electro-Optical Engineer
  • EO/IR Engineer
  • Machine Vision Engineer
  • LiDAR Engineer
  • Fibre Optics Engineer
  • Photonic Integration Engineer
  • Laser Engineer
  • Optical Metrologist

Design software

  • Zemax
  • OpticStudio
  • Code V
  • OSLO
  • FRED
  • LightTools
  • Lumerical
  • Ansys Lumerical FDTD
  • Ansys Lumerical MODE
  • CST
  • MATLAB
  • Python
  • OpenCV

Optical performance

  • MTF
  • modulation transfer function
  • PSF
  • Strehl ratio
  • wavefront error
  • RMS WFE
  • peak-to-valley
  • Zernike
  • Noll
  • aberration
  • Seidel
  • astigmatism
  • coma
  • spherical aberration
  • NETD
  • beam quality
  • numerical aperture
  • f-number
  • depth of field
  • depth of focus

Optical testing

  • Fizeau interferometer
  • ZYGO
  • Shack-Hartmann
  • white light interferometry
  • surface roughness
  • Wyko
  • phase shifting interferometry
  • ISO 12233
  • slanted edge
  • MTF measurement
  • OPD
  • wavefront

Lasers and photonics

  • Nd:YAG
  • diode laser
  • fibre laser
  • CO2 laser
  • ultrafast
  • femtosecond
  • Ti:Sapphire
  • SHG
  • second harmonic
  • Gaussian beam
  • Rayleigh range
  • beam expander
  • DPSS
  • IPG
  • coherence
  • polarisation

Fibre and photonic integration

  • single-mode fibre
  • multimode fibre
  • SMF-28
  • polarisation-maintaining
  • PM fibre
  • OTDR
  • splice loss
  • DWDM
  • EDFA
  • GigE Vision
  • CoaXPress
  • silicon photonics
  • InP
  • PIC
  • ring resonator
  • Mach-Zehnder

Defence and space

  • ITAR
  • EO/IR
  • MWIR
  • LWIR
  • InSb
  • HgCdTe
  • MCT
  • microbolometer
  • athermal
  • CFRP
  • stray light
  • BRDF
  • PST
  • adaptive optics
  • deformable mirror
  • telescope
  • Cassegrain
  • Ritchey-Chrétien
  • BS EN 60825-1
  • laser safety
  • LSO

Long-tail phrases

  • optical engineer resume
  • optical engineer cv
  • how to write an optical engineer resume
  • photonics engineer resume
  • lens design engineer cv
  • optical systems engineer resume 2026
  • EO/IR engineer resume
  • machine vision engineer cv
  • LiDAR engineer resume
  • defence optical engineer cv

Pasting these terms into your resume verbatim without matching context can read as keyword stuffing to a human reviewer, even if it passes the ATS. The full Optical Engineer resume guide shows where each category belongs and how to work it into real experience bullets.