Principal RF Electrical Engineer

HawkEye 360•Herndon, VA

About The Position

HawkEye 360 is seeking a Principal RF Electrical Engineer and Team Lead to join its Space Team, which designs, builds, and tests small commercial satellites for RF geospatial analytics. The role leads electrical and RF design for space platforms, focusing on digital, analog, and power electronics, as well as RF payloads such as Software Defined Radios (SDRs), RF front ends, and antenna systems. The position oversees PCB design from schematic capture through layout and manufacturing and defines and executes performance tests to verify mission requirements. The role leads and mentors a small team of RF and Electrical Engineers while remaining hands-on with design and test work. It collaborates with mechanical, software, payload, and systems engineering teams and works with PCB contract manufacturers to support quality control and timely flight-hardware delivery. Responsibilities span design and development, team planning, testing, spacecraft integration, and investigation of flight-hardware anomalies.

Requirements

Bachelor's degree in RF/Electrical Engineering or a related field.
10+ years of hands-on experience designing and testing RF electronics, including SDRs, mixers, filters, amplifiers, and receiver chains.
Expertise in PCB design and layout using Altium or similar, including schematic capture, component selection, and layout for mixed-signal and RF applications.
Strong understanding of power electronics, high-speed digital design, and analog circuit design.
Strong understanding of RF fundamentals, including impedance matching, S-parameters, noise figure, and linearity, as well as software-defined radio architectures.
Experience using laboratory equipment such as spectrum analyzers, network analyzers, signal generators, noise figure analyzers, and RF test chambers.
Hands-on flight-hardware experience, including satellite integration, RF lab testing, prototyping, and troubleshooting.
Experience handling ESD-sensitive components and working in cleanroom environments.
Strong communication skills to explain complex technical concepts to cross-functional stakeholders.
At least 1 year of technical leadership, project leadership, or team lead experience.

Nice To Haves

Experience in the smallsat or space industry with RF payloads or communication systems.
Experience designing for radiation environments, including TID and proton effects.
Experience with version control such as Git and modern engineering workflows.
Proficiency with Python, MATLAB, C++, or other coding languages for RF analysis and test automation.
Experience with RF simulation tools and RF modeling, such as ADS, CST, Genesys, HFSS, Scikit-RF, or Emerge.
Familiarity with CAD tools such as NX or SolidWorks to support electro-mechanical integration.

Responsibilities

Design digital, analog, and power electronics for satellite flight hardware and oversee schematic capture, PCB layout, RF chain design, and power subsystem development.
Lead PCB design and layout, considering controlled impedance, grounding, shielding, power distribution, and signal integrity.
Establish engineering best practices, design standards, and review processes to promote reliability and consistency in hardware designs.
Facilitate root-cause analyses and corrective actions for flight-hardware anomalies using data-driven problem solving.
Manage task planning, delegation, and technical roadmapping so the RF/Electrical Engineering team meets program milestones from concept through flight qualification.
Work with PCB contract manufacturers to support quality control and timely delivery of flight hardware.
Design and develop RF payload architectures and Software Defined Radio systems for space-based RF collection missions.
Develop test procedures and automation scripts to characterize SDR and RF front-end performance.
Support spacecraft integration and testing, including designing Electrical Ground Support Equipment (EGSE), flatsats for functional testing, and satellite flight-hardware tests.
Perform first-article hardware unit testing, including reception inspection, burn-in testing, thermal validation, and hardware checkouts.
Provide technical guidance and mentorship to a small team while participating directly in design and test activities.