Antenna Engineer (Starship)

SpaceX•Hawthorne, CA

2d•Onsite

About The Position

This team is responsible for RF engineering for the Starship vehicles. This includes both hardware product development (of radios/antennas), as well as ownership of the comm system architecture, analysis, and verification. Hardware development involves managing the development of your product, from design concept through prototyping, qualification testing, and moving into stable production. Systems roles involve extreme ownership of a system from design concept, through integration and test, and even support analysis or on-console for flight. Work may vary in frequency band from UHF (400 MHz) through Ka-band (40 GHz). We also do work outside of communications, including GPS and radar for sensing. We support both the orbital starship vehicle (current development that can be observed in Starbase) as well as the HLS lunar missions for NASA Artemis. We own communications from the baseband (FPGA + modem) through the passband (RF + antenna), and we work closely with mechanical, production, and integration teams.

Requirements

Bachelor's degree in an engineering discipline
1+ years of relevant professional or project experience with antennas or RF systems
1+ years of experience with 3D electromagnetic simulation tools

Nice To Haves

Bachelor's degree or higher in an engineering discipline with emphasis in electromagnetic theory and/or microwave circuits
Master's degree in electrical engineering (electromagnetic or circuits)
Experience with test equipment such as spectrum analyzer, signal generator, network analyzer, power meters, and RF passive components
Proficiency with basic RF concepts such as impedance matching, linear and aperture antennas, smith chart, power handling metrics (IIP2, IMD), microwave network analysis, RF filter design
Experience with near-field or far-field chamber design and operation
Experience with electrical schematic capture software (Altium, Orcad or similar)
Experience with electromagnetics simulation tools such as HFSS, CST, Savant, or similar – including tradeoffs of FEM, MoM, FDTD, and PO methods
Familiar with one of the mainstream RF circuit simulation tools: AWR, ADS, Genesys
Experience with Python, MATLAB, or C/C++ programming for data analysis or test equipment interfacing
Basic CAD skills for prototype designs and working directly with mechanical engineers
Excellent communication and documentation skills, and ability to collaborate with other engineering disciplines

Responsibilities

Design of antennas for communications and sensors, in VHF through Ka-band
Build and characterization of antenna, feed, and front-end prototypes
Development of measurement systems to support design
Analysis of wireless systems (antenna isolation, patterns with large structures, propagation effects, etc.)
Multidisciplinary collaboration to improve RF manufacturing, mechanical integration, and testability