Raydiance seeks 30 workers

PETALUMA -- Raydiance wants to significantly increase production of its high-precision lasers in the next year and is expanding its manufacturing workforce to match a recent move to larger headquarters and $20 million in new capital that has made both possible.

Raydiance is holding its first jobs fair (raydiance.com/careers, 707-559-2100) Sept. 19 from 4--8 p.m. at Raydiance's 43,000-square-foot facility at 1450 N. McDowell Blvd., where the company expanded in March.

The company wants to attract at least 10 qualified workers initially, up to 30 within the next couple of years, depending on how many orders come in, according to Steve Sapers, vice president of operations.

“By the year 2013, we’d like our manufacturing operations to have doubled,” he said.

Raydiance makes software-driven, ultrafast laser pulse systems that can precisely ablate just about any material without generating heat. That gives them applications in human cell targeting and removal as well as a broad spectrum of very-high-precision manufacturing and industrial uses.

“Because of the software component, we need people who are computer-savvy as well as having good hand-eye coordination and the ability to wield a screwdriver,” Mr. Sapers said.

Workers will be assembling the hardware from components manufactured elsewhere and installing laser optics and the brainy computer interface that makes Raydiance lasers accessible to users.

Trained laser technicians are hard to come by in the North Bay, unlike in Silicon Valley, where the San Jose Junior College has a laser optics training program, according to Mr. Sapers. But the Santa Rosa Junior College does have some good software-design classes.

“We’ll be training our new staff members in the laser-optics technology,” he said.

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