Senior Advanced RF Hardware Engineer

STR • Woburn, MA

4h • $134,000 - $184,000

About The Position

STR’s Cyber Division is seeking a Senior Advanced RF Hardware Engineer to apply RF, analog/mixed-signal, and system-test skills on a multidisciplinary team solving technical problems. The engineer will design, analyze, and characterize hardware architectures that support software and hardware modeling, reverse engineering, and rapid prototype testing. The role contributes to RF Hardware-in-the-Loop (HWIL) systems, surrogate builds, digital twins, and hardware-modeling platforms that integrate commercial off-the-shelf components and custom-designed boards. The engineer will participate in design reviews, produce comprehensive design documentation, develop and execute automated test suites, and support quality outputs and future design reuse.

The position is laboratory-based and involves characterizing and debugging complex electronic systems, preparing customer and stakeholder test events, and leading development of lab-based acquisition and control platforms. The engineer will represent the hardware team in interdisciplinary work and contribute technical input to proposals, including technical approaches, bills of materials, cost, and schedule estimates.

A bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, or a related field with five years of related experience, or a master’s degree with three years of related experience, is required. The position requires the ability to obtain a Top Secret security clearance; U.S. citizenship is required by the U.S. Government. The full-time salary range is $134,000–$184,000. STR describes itself as a growing technology company specializing in advanced research and development for defense, intelligence, and national security.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, or a related field and five years of related experience, or a master’s degree and three years of related experience.
• Ability to obtain a Top Secret (TS) security clearance; U.S. citizenship is required by the U.S. Government.
• Demonstrated expertise in electrical circuit design principles in at least one of RF, analog, or digital design.
• Strong problem-solving skills and willingness to mentor junior engineering staff.
• Experience preparing and presenting technical material to customers and internal staff.
• Experience leading hardware efforts from concept through implementation while managing cost and schedule requirements.

Nice To Haves

• Active Top Secret (TS) security clearance.
• Strong RF design or implementation background, including system analysis and component characterization.
• Experience with FPGA forward- and reverse-engineering processes and methodology.
• Experience with RF electromagnetics theory, antenna modeling, and link-budget analysis for over-the-air testing.
• Experience integrating and working with software-defined radios and RFSOC platforms.
• Experience developing PCB-based designs and implementing FPGA and embedded software for HWIL and surrogate designs.
• Experience with analog and RF circuit simulation and modeling tools such as Spice, MATLAB/Simulink, and Microwave Office.
• DSP or other signal-processing skills.
• Experience using and developing tools and test software for Linux, including Red Hat or Ubuntu.
• Software development for RF systems testing using tools or packages such as MATLAB, Python, or C++.
• Knowledge of PCB design and fabrication principles and familiarity with industry-standard CAD tools such as Cadence, Altium, or Eagle.
• Digital/FPGA HDL experience using dedicated design tools such as Vivado, Quartus, or Simulink/HDL Coder.

Responsibilities

• Develop rapid-prototype RF solutions that convert signals from free space to bits using COTS and custom designs.
• Use laboratory test equipment to characterize and debug complex electronic systems.
• Prepare and execute test events for customers and internal and external stakeholders.
• Lead development of lab-based acquisition and control platforms for hardware testing and characterization.
• Represent the hardware team on interdisciplinary efforts, contributing system-architecture and focused-processor expertise.
• Contribute to proposal efforts by providing input on technical approaches and BOM, cost, and schedule estimates.
• Participate in design reviews and provide comprehensive design documentation.
• Build and execute automated test suites and collaborate to support quality outputs and future design reuse.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Senior