Employment at ORA

Company Background

Founded in Pasadena, California in 1963, ORA is the global leader in computer software for optical design, as well as the largest independent supplier of optical engineering consulting services. ORA’s CODE V optical design software has state-of-the-art functionality in the optimization, analysis, and tolerancing of image-forming optical systems. It has increased in sales every year since introduction in 1975, and is currently in use in more than 25 countries. ORA’s LightTools software was introduced in 1995 as the first optical design software based on interactive 3D solid modeling, combining mechanical and optical elements in a single model. The LightTools Illumination Module facilitates the design and engineering of illumination systems by combining the ability to quickly generate complex system geometry, define sources and receivers, and calculate illuminance on one or more surfaces simultaneously.

Staffing

ORA has over 85 staff based at its three operating locations in Pasadena, California; Westborough, Massachusetts; and Tucson, Arizona including over 50 engineers (optical and/or software). Our goal is to hire the most talented and focussed staff in the industry. We offer challenging work in satisfying our customers who expect, deserve, and receive the most capable software, support, and engineering services in our field. We work to help our customers be successful, and we have grown with their success. After 6-12 months of employment, ORA staff members become owners of company stock via our Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP). Our retention of staff is very high, and our turnover rate is lower than the national average for high-tech companies.

Benefits

ORA is an employee-owned company through the ORA ESOP and fosters an employee ownership culture.  ORA provides a competitive employee benefits package to staff members, including a variety of comprehensive group medical plans to choose from, medical/dependant care spending plan, company-paid long- and short-term disability coverage and group life insurance and retirement plans.  Other benefits include a liberal vacation plan, paid holidays, access to a credit union and access to group insurance for your family.

Software Development and Related Environment

The ORA Software Development Group is responsible for developing and maintaining our CODE V and LightTools optical design software. We have over one million lines of programming code in our software products, over half of which are in C++. ORA has a Computer Resources Group which includes software engineers who plan for, acquire, install, administer, and support our computer hardware, networks, and third-party software. The Computer Resources Group is also responsible for software configuration management (using ClearCase), developing software tools, maintaining the development environment and providing regression test services to our Software Development Group.

Optical Engineering and Design Environment

About 20% of our annual revenues are the result of providing custom optical design and engineering, including electro-optical systems design and analysis services, on a project basis. We typically work with over 75 different companies every year, on over 175 projects. Our customers are most often developing new hardware products that are expanding the boundaries for technology, cost, or capability. Our role is to provide system innovation through applying the ORA software products to their advanced problem solving needs. The synergy between the optics engineering group and the ORA software product development is a key factor in the success of ORA. We have helped pioneer a variety of proprietary product designs for aerospace, commercial, and consumer applications. Some examples include holographic laser printers, optics for CD and CD-ROM systems, optics for computer chip manufacturing and inspection, systems with diffractive optics, robotic vision systems, medical optics, ophthalmic optics, and even the test optics used to certify the repair of the Hubble Space Telescope.