Radar Engineer

9 Mothers • Austin, TX

1d • $100,000 - $155,000 • Onsite

About The Position

9 Mothers is hiring a Radar Engineer to own the radar sensing layer of its counter-sUAS kill chain. The role integrates and tunes radars from multiple vendors so their detections and tracks feed into the company’s platform alongside passive acoustic and in-house visual detection systems. The work spans the full radar lifecycle: characterizing sensors, developing software to ingest and process radar data, tuning configurations for small, fast, low-RCS targets in cluttered environments, and validating performance on the range. It combines RF engineering, embedded and real-time software, and systems integration in a fast-moving defense startup environment.

The position is onsite in Austin, Texas. It requires access to export-controlled information under ITAR; applicants must be U.S. citizens and willing to submit to a background check. The company describes the role as foundational, with early equity, influence over the product roadmap, autonomy, and work on systems intended to address real-world threats.

Requirements

• At least 5 years of hands-on experience as a radar engineer, radar systems engineer, or in a similar role, including work with more than one radar type or vendor.
• Demonstrated experience integrating radars into larger systems, such as vehicles, fixed sites, C-UAS, air defense, or autonomy systems, and taking integrations through to fielded use.
• Proven experience tuning radar configurations and processing parameters to improve detection, tracking, and false-alarm performance in real-world clutter and interference.
• Strong working knowledge of radar principles, including the radar range equation, RCS, Doppler processing, CFAR, clutter, multipath, and multi-target tracking such as Kalman filtering and data association.
• Proficiency in C++ and Python, including the ability to write production-quality radar data ingestion and processing code on Linux.
• Comfort diagnosing issues across RF hardware, TCP/UDP networking, timing, and software layers, and using lab equipment such as spectrum analyzers and oscilloscopes.
• Resourcefulness and independence to own ambiguous sensor problems end-to-end and spend meaningful time on the range in a fast-moving startup environment.
• U.S. citizenship is required due to access to ITAR-controlled information.
• Must be willing to submit to a background check.

Nice To Haves

• Hands-on experience with radars purpose-built for counter-drone or short-range air surveillance, such as Echodyne, Robin Radar, Blighter, RADA, or comparable systems.
• Experience detecting and classifying Group 1 sUAS, including micro-Doppler signatures and distinguishing drones from birds and ground clutter.
• Experience using MATLAB or NumPy/SciPy for radar signal and data analysis.
• Multimodal sensor-fusion experience combining radar with EO/IR, acoustic, or RF sensors.
• Experience with ROS/ROS 2, NVIDIA Jetson or other edge computing, FPGAs, or real-time signal-processing pipelines.
• Familiarity with interoperability formats such as ASTERIX, Cursor-on-Target, or SAPIENT for sharing radar tracks with C2 systems.
• Experience in an ITAR or compliance-bound defense environment, or prior work at a defense contractor or with DoD customers.
• BS or MS in Electrical Engineering, Physics, or a related field focused on RF, signal processing, or radar.
• Active security clearance or eligibility to obtain one.
• A passion for building robots or engineering projects as a hobby.

Responsibilities

• Run bench and range characterization of fielded radars, verify vendor performance claims, and establish tuning baselines.
• Integrate multiple radar models into the counter-drone platform, including mechanical and electrical interfaces, timing and synchronization, coordinate-frame alignment, and vendor SDKs, APIs, and data protocols.
• Design, build, and maintain software to configure radars and ingest, filter, and publish detections and tracks reliably and with low latency.
• Tune radar parameters, including waveform and mode selection, detection thresholds, CFAR, clutter maps, Doppler filtering, and track initiation and maintenance, to improve detection and reduce false alarms against small, fast sUAS.
• Work with perception and controls teams to fuse radar tracks with acoustic and EO/IR data and use radar to cue visual tracking and effectors.
• Build and execute test plans involving simulation, hardware-in-the-loop, and live-flight range testing with UAS pilots; establish metrics for detection range, track quality, latency, and false-alarm rate.
• Support radar setup, site surveys, and tuning for customer demonstrations, pilots, and field deployments; troubleshoot issues from the RF front end through the software stack.
• Produce and maintain integration documentation, interface control documents (ICDs), tuning guides, and test reports for internal teams and external partners.

Benefits

• Meaningful early equity, with contributions directly affecting the value of the employee’s stake.
• Direct influence over the product and technology roadmap.
• Work on mission-critical systems intended to counter immediate real-world threats.
• A new lab optimized for rapid prototyping, equipped with NVIDIA Jetsons, high-end scopes, and 3-D printers.
• Employer pays 100% of medical, dental, and vision insurance premiums and 50% of healthcare premiums for dependents.
• Unlimited PTO.
• Autonomy to make technical decisions with minimal bureaucracy.
• Onsite Austin-based team culture focused on high-bandwidth collaboration and rapid field testing.
• Relocation assistance for candidates moving to Austin.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Senior
• Education Level: No Education Listed