Senior RF Engineer

Venus Aerospace•Houston, TX

2d•Onsite

About The Position

Venus Aerospace is revolutionizing rocket engine propulsion with its proprietary Rotating Detonation Rocket Engine and Venus Detonation Ramjets, offering historic efficiency and performance across aerospace applications. We are building the next generation of propulsion platforms for space, defense, and commercial high-speed flight. The Principal RF Engineer will join the team to design, build, and flight test revolutionary propulsion technology. This role involves leading the assessment of link budgets, designing ground stations and onboard radio and antenna systems, and conducting system testing to ensure critical test data is gathered. The position requires a blend of analysis, mission planning, hands-on engineering, hardware-in-the-loop testing, and cross-disciplinary collaboration to deliver reliable, flight-ready systems. Ideal candidates excel at systems thinking, flight systems implementations, and solving complex problems.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in Electrical, Mechanical, Mechatronics Engineering, or a related field. Alternatively, Radar Systems or Data Science experience, with a strong quantitative and mechanical measurements foundation.
5+ years of experience in RF telemetry in rocket, missile or space applications.
Experience conducting link analysis for flight vehicles in the supersonic and hypersonic flight regimes.
Experience writing requirements, conducting trade studies, selecting onboard antennas, and radios.
Experience placing and designing ground systems to receive data from and send commands.
Experience implementing and troubleshooting grounding, bonding, and shielding solutions for analog-to-digital instrumentation signals in multi-band RF environments.
Strong background in hardware-in-the-loop (HITL) testing and integration.
Experience working with and managing outside vendors, including technical evaluations and supplier coordination.
Strong troubleshooting and systems-level thinking skills.
Experience with environmental testing and qualification.
Systems-level avionics expertise.
Cross-functional collaboration.
Vendor and supplier management.
Clear technical communication.
Must be a U.S. citizen, lawful permanent resident of the U.S., protected individual as defined by 8 U.S.C. 1324b(a)(3), or eligible to obtain the required authorizations from the U.S. Department of State to meet ITAR requirements.

Nice To Haves

Strong experience with small vehicle avionics teams.
Strong interpersonal skills and the ability to collaborate with diverse teams.
Familiarity with embedded systems, buses and protocols (CAN, UART, SPI, I2C, Ethernet, MIL-STD-1553, etc.).
Experience managing contractors for consulting or hardware production.
Multiple launch campaigns under your belt.
Experience contributing to design reviews and flight safety reviews with range stakeholders.

Responsibilities

Design, build, and fly telemetry systems.
Lead the architecture, design, and selection of telemetry hardware, radios, antennas, and ground stations.
Conduct link analysis for a range of flight regimes.
Design ground stations and ground station networks to capture flight data and send commands.
Deconflict frequency plans in different launch environments.
Define requirements, conduct trade studies, and select radios and antennas.
Develop and maintain hardware-in-the-loop (HITL) test environments.
Support system integration, ground testing, and flight testing, including troubleshooting and root cause analysis.
Assess system risks and recommend mitigations.
Collaborate with external vendors and suppliers.
Author and review technical documentation.
Collaborate with Flight Software, Avionics, IT, GN&C, Aerodynamics, and Structures engineering disciplines.
Collaborate with Manufacturing and Quality to ensure systems are ready to fly.