Principal Mixed-Signal Design Engineer, Data Converters

K2 Space

About The Position

K2 is building the largest and highest-power satellites ever flown, unlocking performance levels previously out of reach across every orbit. Backed by over $1 billion in funding and over $1 billion in signed contracts, K2 is mass-producing the highest-power satellite platforms ever built for missions from LEO to deep space. The rise of heavy-lift launch vehicles is shifting the industry from an era of mass constraint to one of mass abundance, and K2 believes this new era demands a fundamentally different class of spacecraft. Engineered to survive the harshest radiation environments and to fully capitalize on today's and tomorrow's massive rockets, K2 satellites deliver unmatched capability at constellation scale and across multiple orbits. With multiple launches in 2027 and plans to scale to 100 satellites a year, K2 is Building Bigger — helping develop the solar system and build toward a Kardashev Type II (K2) civilization. If you are a motivated individual who thrives in a fast-paced environment and you're excited about contributing to the success of a high-growth Series D-funded company, we'd love for you to apply. About the Role We are looking for a Principal Mixed-Signal Design Engineer, Data Converters to lead the architecture and development of wideband, high-performance data converters and associated analog front-ends for advanced mixed-signal SoCs. This is a hands-on technical leadership role with significant ownership—from architecture and technology tradeoffs through circuit design, integration, and silicon validation.

Requirements

MS or PhD in Electrical Engineering or related field with significant industry experience in high-performance analog/mixed-signal IC design.
Deep expertise designing GHz-class and/or multi-GS/s ADCs and DACs.
Strong understanding of converter architectures such as SAR, pipeline, time-interleaved, flash/folding, current-steering DACs, and hybrid architectures.
Demonstrated ability to translate system requirements into converter architectures and circuit-level specifications.
Strong experience with wideband analog/RF signal paths, sampling circuits, clocking, references, and low-noise/high-linearity circuit design.
Experience designing high-performance analog circuits in FinFET technologies.
Strong understanding of converter impairments, including jitter, noise, distortion, mismatch, timing skew, interleaving errors, and calibration.
Experience taking complex analog/mixed-signal ICs from architecture through tapeout and silicon bring-up.
Deep proficiency with industry-standard analog/mixed-signal design, simulation, and verification tools.
The person hired for this role must therefore either be a “U.S. person” as defined by 22 C.F.R. § 120.15 or otherwise eligible for a federally issued export control license.

Nice To Haves

Experience with RF-sampling or direct-RF ADC/DAC architectures.
Experience developing converters with multi-GHz instantaneous bandwidth.
Experience with digitally assisted analog design and background/foreground calibration.
Experience integrating converters into large digital-heavy SoCs.
Experience with advanced packaging, high-speed I/O, and signal-integrity considerations for wideband mixed-signal devices.
Experience helping build new methodologies and silicon platforms from the ground up.

Responsibilities

Architect and design high-speed, wideband ADCs and DACs targeting demanding RF and mixed-signal applications.
Lead converter architecture selection and trade studies, balancing bandwidth, sampling rate, resolution/ENOB, linearity, power, area, and implementation risk.
Design supporting wideband analog front-ends, including ADC input networks, track-and-hold/sampling circuits, DAC output stages, references, biasing, clocking, and calibration circuitry.
Develop high-performance circuits in advanced FinFET CMOS technologies and address the unique analog design challenges associated with deeply scaled nodes.
Own designs from concept and behavioral modeling through transistor-level implementation, layout, verification, and silicon characterization.
Develop calibration and correction techniques for impairments and work closely with DSP/systems engineers on mixed-signal algorithms.
Define converter specifications and interfaces in collaboration with systems, RF, digital, package, and verification teams.
Drive converter integration into complex mixed-signal SoCs, including power, clocking, signal integrity, and physical implementation considerations.
Help establish data-converter design methodologies, IP, simulation infrastructure, and best practices from the ground up.
Provide technical leadership and mentorship to analog and mixed-signal engineers.