Sr. Staff RF Systems Engineer

Rivian and Volkswagen Group Technologies•Palo Alto, CA

3d•$237,200 - $326,150•Hybrid

About The Position

The Senior Staff RF Systems Engineer is the technical anchor across our wireless ecosystem [ 5G/Cellular, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, UWB, GNSS, and V2X ] spanning the full life of a radio-centric ECU from the design table to global launch. This is a hands-on individual contributor role at the top of our IC ladder: you design and simulate the RF systems that ship, own the homologation strategy that gets them certified into every region we sell into, and set the validation standards other engineers build against. You bridge silicon-level design, board- and system-level implementation, and global regulatory launch, and you are the person leadership turns to when RF is the open question blocking a program, whether that question is “will this architecture close the link budget,” “will this ECU pass FCC and RED,” or “why is this unit failing in the chamber.” This role will be 3 days onsite in Palo Alto and report to the Sr. Engineering Manager.

Requirements

BS in Electrical Engineering, RF/Communications, or related field with 10+ years of RF design, test, and certification experience (MS with 8+, PhD with 5+).
Demonstrated track record shipping high-volume wireless and automotive RF products through full design, development, and certification cycles.
Strong combination of RF engineering, system design, and board/circuit design skills.
Fundamental RF knowledge including cascaded device analysis, link budget analysis, and HFSS.
Experience developing and delivering an RF product end to end — requirements, prototyping, engineering models, PCB layout/fabrication, and ECU enclosure packaging.
Deep, hands-on experience with global RF certification — FCC, RED/CE, and other regional regimes — plus US carrier certification (Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile) and PTCRB/GCF processes.
Comfortable owning escalations directly with test houses and certification bodies.
Expert-level knowledge of wireless standards from PHY through MAC — Cellular (LTE/5G NR, sub-6 and mmWave), Wi-Fi (802.11a/g/n/ac/ax, 802.11be a plus), and Bluetooth (BDR/EDR/BLE).
Able to read the spec, interpret ambiguity, and defend your reading to a chipset vendor.
Advanced Python with software engineering discipline — version control, testing, modularity, documentation.
Proven history architecting (not just scripting) instrument control via SCPI/VISA and post-processing frameworks used by teams beyond your own.
Hands-on expertise operating and automating wideband radio communication testers (R&S CMW500/CMX500, Keysight equivalents), spectrum and signal analyzers, and VNAs for S-parameter and Smith Chart analysis.
Distill complex RF data into clear, actionable insight for non-RF stakeholders and executives.
Build alignment across organizations without direct authority.
Write documentation that outlives the program.
Proactive learner who pivots between wireless technologies, design and certification priorities, and shifting timelines in a fast-moving environment.

Nice To Haves

UWB (802.15.4z), V2X (DSRC/C-V2X), and GNSS integration and testing
Automotive RF experience — ECU-level validation, AEC-Q qualification, automotive EMC
mmWave OTA measurement and antenna pattern characterization
Standards body or industry consortium participation
Project management experience

Responsibilities

Design, simulate, and prototype RF products and communication modules for automotive ECUs, including component selection, PCB layout/fabrication, and packaging within the ECU enclosure. Use HFSS and cascaded device analysis to close link budgets before hardware is ever cut.
Define and maintain RF requirements specifications; ensure key design decisions align with product capability targets across cellular, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, UWB, GNSS, and V2X domains.
Review proposals and requirements specs to assess compliance against existing unit capabilities versus development needs; scope and drive development activities for new requirements.
Lead characterization and competitive benchmarking of next-generation chipsets, front-end modules, and antenna systems. Your data drives component selection decisions with multi-year architectural consequences; represent RF design requirements directly to silicon vendors and influence their roadmaps.
Own the end-to-end RF certification strategy for radio-centric ECUs across FCC, RED/CE, and other regional regulatory regimes, plus US carrier certification (Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile) and PTCRB/GCF processes.
Lead homologation and certification of radio ECUs across every geographical region we launch into, translating regional RF/EMC requirements into design and test requirements early enough to influence architecture rather than react to it.
Anticipate regulatory shifts before they hit a program; resolve escalations with test houses and certification bodies directly; keep global launches off the critical path.
Serve as the org's authority on cellular protocol and carrier certification requirements, defending your interpretation of ambiguous spec language to regulators, test houses, and carriers.
Build and maintain the homologation playbook and the capital/lab-capability roadmap — chambers, positioners, shield rooms — that lets the org scale certification across more regions and programs without linearly scaling headcount.
Define the multi-program RF test strategy from bring-up through mass production. Establish measurement methodologies, pass/fail criteria, and correlation standards that become the org-wide reference across EVT/DVT/PVT.
Support the development of test plans, procedures, and production automation; architect the Python-based instrument control, data acquisition, and post-processing infrastructure the RF team runs on, and drive its adoption across sites and vendor labs.
Serve as final technical escalation for the hardest RF failures — the ones spanning silicon, firmware, antenna, mechanical, and test setup — isolating root cause where the boundaries are ambiguous and no one else has been able to.
Lead incident management and investigations for field and lab RF failures, translating findings back into design and certification requirements so the same failure mode doesn't recur.
Mentor RF, design, and validation engineers; raise the bar through design and code review; drive lab capability roadmaps.
Translate complex RF requirements and data into clear, actionable insight for non-RF stakeholders and executives. Represent RF in architecture reviews and design trade-off discussions before decisions are locked. Build alignment across hardware, software, systems, and program management without direct authority.