Sr. RF Firmware Engineer

Mach Industries•Huntington Beach, CA

9d•$120,000 - $230,000•Onsite

About The Position

The Sr. RF Firmware Engineer will play a key role in developing advanced RF sensing capabilities for Mach’s autonomous defense platforms. Working on the DART team, you will focus directly on next-generation counter-UAV radar systems and RF seekers. You will be responsible for designing, implementing, verifying and optimizing the embedded firmware that controls the RF front-end of Mach’s RF seeker across the full development lifecycle - bare-metal board bring-up to final deployment. This role involves close collaboration with cross-functional teams that include antenna and RF hardware engineers to ensure the entire radar RF front-end system meets the mission-critical requirements. Success in this role requires strong technical execution, adaptability, and a hands-on approach in a fast-paced, iterative environment.

Requirements

Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Science, or Software Engineer or a related field.
5+ years of experience developing embedded firmware for RF/microwave front-ends, for products such as radar/RF seekers or wireless radio (4G/5G/BLE/Wifi) products.
Proficiency in bare-metal C/C++ with proven ability to write clean, well-tested, and highly efficient code in memory constrained environments.
Demonstrated experience bringing up new microcontrollers and processors from scratch, including MCU clock/PLL configuration, low-level peripheral bring-up (I2C, SPI, CAN, GPIO) on development kits and Mach’s custom hardware.
Deep familiarity with RF/microwave transmitter and receiver architectures and components (DDS, PLL, LNA, PA, mixers, filters, and down-conversion stages) and calibration techniques.
Hands-on experience using lab test equipment (oscilloscopes, spectrum analyzers, signal generators, logic/protocol analyzers) to debug and measure the performance of RF front-end hardware.
Proficiency in Python or other scripting language to automate the collection of RF/microwave measurements and calibration data.
Deep understanding of standard communication protocols (SPI, I2C, UART, CAN and Ethernet) used to control RF/microwave ICs and interface with other subsystems.
Ability to read electronics circuit schematics to isolate hardware/software issues.
Skilled in optimizing code to meet strict real-time timing and deterministic software constraints.
Ability to debug, test and validate embedded software using functional tests, logic/protocol analyzers and lab tests to ensure the functionality of embedded software.
Strong grasp of full software development life cycle and ability to execute and thrive in a fast-paced, high-iteration environment, delivering frequent software updates with speed and precision.
Ability to work 100% on-site at our headquarters in Huntington Beach, CA.

Nice To Haves

Strong theoretical background in radar, electromagnetic wave propagation, wireless communication or RF sensing and RF calibration techniques.
Knowledge of military, aerospace, or safety-critical software standards (e.g., DO-178C, MISRA C, ASIL).

Responsibilities

Build next generation counter-UAV defense systems that will be used to defend human lives, critical infrastructure, and high value assets for the United States and its allies.
Write high-performance, bare-metal C/C++ firmware for resource constrained microcontrollers powering the RF front-end boards in Mach’s radar products.
Work with hardware engineers on component selection, board bring-up, and optimal hardware-software trade-offs (power, cost, form factor).
Bring-up low level C/C++ bare-meta code from scratch, including peripherals/drivers (I2C, SPI, CAN, GPIO) to configure RF/microwave ICs (such as DDS, PPL, LNA, PA, filters, switches, etc) and interface to other subsystems.
Devise lab tests using RF/microwave test equipment to verify the functionality of the firmware and performance of the RF front-end boards.
Analyze amplitude, phase, and performance metrics to develop calibration techniques and implement calibration techniques in firmware to optimize the performance of the RF front-end boards.
Write scripts (Python) to automate factory RF/microwave calibration processes to speed up calibration and ensure a high calibration accuracy.
Own firmware quality, reliability and performance by proactively identifying, documenting/tracking and fixing issues to maintain high reliability of Mach’s radar systems.
Develop functional and lab tests to validate the accuracy and performance of newly implemented embedded software or new features.
Author clear software specifications, architectural designs, and testing procedures to support manufacturing scalability.
Contribute to project planning, including communicating risks/blockers and manage engineering trade-offs.