Lead Radar Instrument Engineer
About The Position
Relativity Space is developing Terran R, a launch vehicle intended to deliver customer payloads to orbit. The Interplanetary Sciences Program aims to make planetary research faster, more affordable, and more capable by rethinking how science missions are designed, built, and operated, and by enabling more continuous solar-system exploration. The Lead Radar Instrument Engineer will serve as the technical lead and responsible engineer for a wideband UHF shallow radar sounder for a Mars orbiter mission. The engineer will own the instrument from design through spacecraft integration, calibration, and commissioning. The instrument will operate in sounder mode to measure subsurface layer reflections and in radiometer mode to measure subsurface-layer temperatures over a wide footprint. This is a hands-on technical leadership role, involving direct design and analysis work as well as collaboration with science partners as their primary engineering counterpart. The engineer will co-design the instrument to meet science objectives and develop its flight hardware and processing implementations.
Requirements
- At least 7 years of experience in electrical hardware development, such as software-defined radios, radar transceivers, or sophisticated digital processors.
- Demonstrated ability to develop and manage radar system performance budgets.
- Experience analyzing and modeling radar returns and radar performance.
- Experience implementing radio or radar transceivers as software-defined radios.
- Field-testing, flight-testing, or spaceflight experience with radio or radar transceivers.
- Deep expertise in at least one of the following: implementing signal-processing chains in FPGA and/or GPU processing; designing mixed-signal and digital PCBs, such as software-defined radios or board-level FPGA designs; RF circuit design, including power amplifiers, low-noise amplifiers, and filters; or antenna design and verification.
Nice To Haves
- Experience with microwave radiometry or radiometer instrument design.
- Familiarity with planetary or terrestrial radars, such as SHARAD, MARSIS, RIMFAX, or ice-penetrating radar.
- Hands-on experience with AMD/Xilinx RFSoC or Zynq UltraScale+ platforms.
- Experience with spectrum licensing and frequency coordination for experimental or space systems.
- Experience with polarimetric radar and full-polarimetry calibration.
- Experience taking RF payloads through PDR/CDR, qualification, and spacecraft integration.
Responsibilities
- Own the vehicle-level system design for radar electronics, signal-processing chain, and antenna system in sounder and radiometer modes, including instrument performance, power and mass budgets, link budgets, and SNR and penetration-depth analyses.
- Lead waveform trade studies with science partners, implement their waveforms and baseline algorithms, and co-design the instrument to meet science adequacy and mission science objectives.
- Lead hardware development, including prototype development and brass-board-level validation before flight designs.
- Define the calibration scheme for both radar and radiometer modes.
- Coordinate hardware development across RF, digital, power, and mechanical disciplines, as well as firmware and software development.
- Lead instrument qualification and acceptance testing, spacecraft integration, and terrestrial analog flight testing, including test integration and post-flight data review.
- Perform spectrum licensing and frequency coordination for instrument operation and testing.
- Support instrument calibration and on-orbit commissioning.
Benefits
- Competitive salary and equity.
- Generous PTO and sick leave policy.
- Parental leave.
- Annual learning and development stipend.
- Additional benefits and perks.
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What This Job Offers
Job Type
Full-time
Career Level
Senior
Education Level
No Education Listed
