Sr. RF Software Engineer (Starshield)

SpaceX•Hawthorne, CA

1d•$165,000 - $230,000•Onsite

About The Position

As a RF software engineer on the Starshield team, you will be working on advanced development programs in support of US National Security. You will work with a team of RF engineers, DSP engineers, software engineers, hardware engineers and end users to design and build RF capabilities for proliferated communications and remote sensing in low earth orbit. You will work in a highly collaborative and fast-paced environment, where we are exploring unsolved problems and applying the SpaceX mindset of iterating rapidly to go from design and demo to operational capability at lightning pace.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering or other engineering discipline
5+ years of professional development experience in C/C++ or Python
Experience with radio test equipment such as spectrum analyzers, vector signal analyzers, vector signal generators, and network analyzers
RF experience with antennas or communication systems

Nice To Haves

Master's degree in electrical engineering or other engineering discipline
Experience with testing both active and passive RF devices such as filters, amplifiers, mixers, and upconverters/downconverters
Experience with common RF concepts such as gain, linearity, P1dB, ACLR, EVM, PAE, S-parameters, and input/output matching
Experience with software design principles, software architecture, design patterns, and unit/integration testing methodology
Experience with environmental test methodologies and equipment such as thermal chambers and temperature forcing systems
Experience troubleshooting interactions between software and hardware such as network devices and lab instrumentation
Experience using Windows and Linux operating systems
Experience with configuration management and version control software
Active TS/SCI clearance or the ability to obtain and maintain one

Responsibilities

Drive program-level decisions on RF system designs
Research novel solutions for unique large-scale satellite RF systems
Design, build, validate, and automate RF test benches for full characterization of custom RF designs, often involving vector network analyzers (VNA), vector signal generators (VSG), vector signal analyzers (VSA), spectrum analyzers, load pulls, RF power meters, high-speed oscilloscopes, and other common lab equipment
Design and build modular, scalable RF test infrastructure and test automation sequences in Python and C++ to support design validation, qualification, and production
Work in close collaboration with hardware, FPGA, DSP, and software engineers to design and validate RF systems
Create electromagnetic simulation models of hardware to design and evaluate performance