Product Application Engineer

Cubic Corporation•Durham, NC

2d•$115,000 - $133,000

About The Position

The Product Application Engineer (PAE) applies engineering principles, Nuvotronics product knowledge, and application experience to support customers in designing in, integrating, and using Nuvotronics products. The PAE is an internal user of Nuvotronics products, developing evaluation boards and production-representative reference designs, with emphasis on sound PCBA design, RF/mmWave board design, and component-to-system integration. The role also serves as a technical bridge to customers, coordinating with Nuvotronics engineering disciplines and collecting and documenting customer technical requirements and application needs. The PAE develops evaluation boards, product demonstrations, and reusable reference designs that demonstrate recommended schematic, layout, stack-up, grounding, power-distribution, thermal, mechanical, assembly, and RF integration practices. The role supports technical discussions throughout the sales process and helps customers integrate PolyStrata products into PCBAs and RF subsystems. It maintains customer engineering relationships, oversees technical engagements, and serves as the point of contact for customer-related technical activities. The successful candidate will navigate complex technical issues, meet time-driven deliverables, build collaborative relationships, help develop and implement product strategy, and drive design-in objectives. The position supports applications in Defense, SATCOM, Test & Measurement, Mobile Infrastructure, or mmWave. It calls for practical experience designing and bringing up RF PCBAs, integrating RF components into larger assemblies, and translating product guidance into clear, validated customer reference designs. The role requires the ability to obtain a Department of Defense security clearance and travel as required, approximately 10–30%.

Requirements

BSEE or a related engineering degree.
At least 3 years of RF, microwave, mmWave, or RF PCBA design and integration experience.
Ability to obtain a DoD security clearance.
Demonstrated experience with schematic capture and PCB layout review for RF/microwave hardware.
Working knowledge of multilayer PCB stack-ups, controlled impedance, RF materials, grounding, power integrity, thermal design, DFM/DFA/DFT, fabrication tolerances, and assembly processes.
Hands-on experience bringing up and troubleshooting RF PCBAs using equipment such as vector network analyzers, spectrum analyzers, signal generators, power meters, oscilloscopes, and related fixtures.
Excellent communication, negotiation, and presentation skills.
Ability to travel as required, approximately 10–30%.
Ability to prioritize work, complete multiple tasks, and work under deadlines.

Nice To Haves

MSEE.
Experience with microwave circuit-modeling tools such as MWO or ADS and full-wave electromagnetic simulation tools such as HFSS or CST; ability to correlate simulations with board-level measurements.
Experience in Defense, SATCOM, or the RF products industry.
Experience in business development or sales to an engineering community.
Experience developing technical hardware specifications through a consultative process with customers.
Experience producing complete, reusable reference-design documentation and communicating design rules, implementation tradeoffs, measured performance, and integration limits to customers.
Experience with analytical and automation tools such as MATLAB, Python, or JMP for data analysis, visualization, and test-result processing.
Experience in Defense, SATCOM, Test & Measurement, Mobile Infrastructure, or mmWave applications.

Responsibilities

Identify new and expanded business opportunities within a market or region.
Develop, document, validate, and maintain evaluation boards, customer-ready reference designs, and product demonstrations to accelerate successful design-in.
Apply and communicate PCBA design principles, including stack-up definition, controlled-impedance routing, grounding and return-current management, power integrity, decoupling, thermal management, design for manufacturability, assembly, and test.
Own RF PCBA implementation and integration activities, including RF transmission-line design, transitions and launches, connector and interconnect selection, placement and routing, shielding and isolation, bias networks, calibration/de-embedding structures, and mitigation of coupling, loss, and parasitic effects.
Create reusable reference-design packages containing schematics, layouts, bills of materials, design notes, simulation assumptions, fabrication and assembly guidance, test procedures, measured results, and known limitations.
Plan and execute board bring-up and RF validation with appropriate laboratory equipment; compare measured performance with simulation and product data, and drive corrective actions when results do not align.
Develop, implement, and support customer technical design-in engagement strategies.
Support customers using Nuvotronics products, working with customer engineering, PCB layout, manufacturing, and assembly teams to resolve integration and bring-up questions.
Monitor and analyze technical activity against goals.
Develop and maintain customer contacts and engineering relationships.
Develop technical information for new business proposals, product specifications, statements of work, and systems requirements.
Recommend product applications or modifications to satisfy customer requirements.
Confer with customer technical representatives and management to determine and interpret customer requirements.
Track potential sales opportunities and competitor firms’ marketing efforts.
Assist customers with schematic, layout, simulation, component selection, board bring-up, measurement correlation, and RF integration challenges using available design tools.
Collaborate with RF design, mechanical, product, manufacturing, quality, sales, and other internal teams to deliver application solutions.