Senior Mixed Signals Engineer

Xona Space Systems • Burlingame, CA

1d • $200,000 - $220,000

About The Position

Xona is seeking a Senior Mixed-Signal Engineer to lead the design and implementation of advanced electronics for satellite and space-based systems. The primary responsibility is placement, layout, and high-speed routing of RFSoC-based boards, integrating RF, analog, digital, clocking, power, and high-speed data interfaces into a robust, space-qualified hardware platform.

The engineer will collaborate with RF, electrical, FPGA, and mechanical teams to take RFSoC hardware from concept through design, prototyping, testing, and later production. The role ensures that layouts meet performance, manufacturability, thermal, mechanical, reliability, and space-environment requirements.

Xona is developing Pulsar, a low-Earth-orbit satellite infrastructure intended to provide precise, resilient global positioning and timing as an independent alternative to GNSS.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering, Electronics Engineering, or a related discipline.
• At least 8 years of experience in mixed-signal, RF, high-speed digital, or advanced PCB design.
• Understanding of electromagnetic principles behind radio frequency communications.
• Ability to interpret PCBA schematics and layout drawings.
• Familiarity with PCB ECAD tools such as Altium for schematic and layout work.
• Demonstrated experience laying out complex RFSoC, FPGA, ADC/DAC, RF, or high-speed mixed-signal boards.
• Strong understanding of mixed-signal PCB design, including controlled impedance, differential signaling, high-speed serial interfaces, clock and synchronization design, power distribution, grounding and shielding, RF transmission lines, and signal and power integrity.
• Hands-on experience with electrical and RF test equipment, including multimeters, oscilloscopes, signal generators, and spectrum analyzers.
• Knowledge of typical performance metrics for RF communications systems.
• Experience using or interpreting results from signal-integrity, power-integrity, electromagnetic, or thermal analysis tools.
• Experience with RFSoC or comparable AMD/Xilinx devices, including device pin planning, power requirements, clocking, transceiver interfaces, and high-speed data-converter connectivity.
• Familiarity with interfaces such as JESD204, DDR, PCIe, Ethernet, Aurora, high-speed ADC/DAC interfaces, and RF clocking systems.
• Willingness and ability to travel to support off-site testing events as needed.
• Self-starter attitude and proactive approach to seeing projects through design and implementation.
• Strong problem-solving skills, attention to detail, and ability to work in a fast-paced, cross-team collaborative environment.
• Effective communication and interpersonal skills for working with multidisciplinary teams and external partners.
• Strong understanding of manufacturing constraints, PCB fabrication, assembly, inspection, and design for manufacturing.
• For U.S. roles, must be a U.S. citizen, lawful permanent resident, or other protected individual as defined by 8 U.S.C. 1324b(a)(3), to comply with U.S. Government space technology export regulations.
• For U.K. roles, must satisfy Baseline Personnel Security Standard (BPSS) checks and be eligible to obtain UK Security Clearance (SC).
• For Canada roles, must obtain and hold reliability-status security clearance and pass security assessment for the Canadian Controlled Goods Program (CGP) and ITAR.

Nice To Haves

• Experience designing electronics for satellites, spacecraft, launch vehicles, avionics, or other mission-critical systems.
• Experience with space-qualified or radiation-tolerant components and PCB materials.
• Familiarity with ECSS, NASA, MIL-STD, IPC, or other relevant aerospace and electronics standards.
• Experience with thermal-vacuum, vibration, shock, radiation, EMC/EMI, and environmental qualification testing.
• Experience designing RF payload, software-defined radio, communications, radar, remote-sensing, or satellite-navigation hardware.
• Knowledge of RFSoC development workflows, including Vivado, PetaLinux, Vitis, RF Data Converter tools, RFDC configuration, and FPGA/embedded integration.
• Experience with RF front-end design, antenna interfaces, frequency conversion, filtering, amplification, and low-noise signal chains.
• Familiarity with radiation analysis, derating, reliability prediction, failure-mode analysis, and fault-tolerant design.
• Experience with Python, MATLAB, or similar tools for design automation, analysis, and testing.
• Experience leading technical reviews.

Responsibilities

• Lead the design and implementation of advanced electronics for satellite and space-based systems.
• Perform placement, layout, and high-speed routing of RFSoC-based boards.
• Integrate RF, analog, digital, clocking, power, and high-speed data interfaces into robust, space-qualified hardware.
• Work with RF, electrical, FPGA, and mechanical teams throughout hardware concept, design, prototyping, testing, and production.
• Ensure RFSoC layouts meet performance, manufacturability, thermal, mechanical, reliability, and space-environment requirements.
• Support off-site testing events as needed.

What This Job Offers

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