Mission Operations Engineer

Distributed Spectrum•New York, NY

2d•Onsite

About The Position

As a Mission Operations Engineer at Distributed Spectrum, you will be at the heart of transforming raw RF data into actionable intelligence in operational environments. Empowered by AI-driven sensing, you’ll ensure operators can detect, understand, and respond to emerging threats at the edge. You’ll work on everything from deploying sensors in the field, integrating systems, and building operational toolchains to supporting customer missions in real time. Joining DS means owning major parts of a fast-growing AI research organization, joining a collaborative, talent-dense team with decades of experience in probabilistic ML, accelerated computing, embedded systems, and signal theory, and growing your career in the areas that interest you. You’ll fit in if you want to come to work for the problem itself and don’t want to choose between technical rigor, business value, and real-world impact. We work with high ownership and trust, and we do it together in the office 5 days/week.

Requirements

Experience in mission operations or field engineering roles, ideally in RF, sensing, autonomy, or related domains.
Background in signal processing, communications engineering, or similar technical fields.
Proficiency with data collection workflows, operational tooling, dashboards, or field instrumentation.
Strong troubleshooting, adaptability, and an edge-case mindset.
Excellent communication and collaboration skills, comfortable with both technical teams and field operators.
Willingness to travel extensively and work in diverse, sometimes austere, environments.
Eligible for US security clearance

Nice To Haves

Military or government experience working with RF systems
Familiarity with tools for autonomous system integration
Experience with AI-informed, edge‑deployed sensors, or autonomy platforms.

Responsibilities

Operate and support live mission deployments, working with edge‑AI sensors to detect and classify threats from RF environments.
Lead hands-on field operations, including deployment planning, sensor configuration, testing, troubleshooting, and data validation.
Design and improve mission workflows, translating operator needs into technical specifications, products, and real-world capabilities.
Collaborate closely with engineering teams, feeding customer insights back to drive rapid iteration on sensor hardware, software, and AI models.
Drive training and documentation efforts, ensuring that internal teams and customers have the tools and knowledge to operate efficiently.
Support mission planning and execution, including preparing test scenarios, overseeing data collection during deployments, and coordinating post-mission debriefs.
Ensure data integrity and operational readiness, maintaining system health, monitoring performance, and contributing to continued development of our core platform.