Wireless Network Engineer

Specter•San Francisco, CA

About The Position

Wireless Network Engineer Specter is building a software-defined control plane for the physical world. Our mission is to protect and empower American businesses by granting them ubiquitous perception over their physical assets. We’re creating a connected hardware–software ecosystem built on multimodal wireless mesh sensing, driving down the cost and time of deploying sensors by 10×. Ultimately, Specter’s platform will serve as the perception engine for a company’s physical footprint - enabling real-time perimeter visibility and autonomous operations management. Our founders, Xerxes Libsch and Philip Clark, are building a team of exceptional engineers from Anduril, Tesla, Uber, and the U.S. Special Forces who are redefining how machines sense and understand the physical world. The Role Specter is hiring a Wireless Network Engineer to define and optimize the end-to-end wireless network connecting thousands of edge devices across large, distributed environments. This role sits at the intersection of RF systems, RF integration, network modeling, and fleet management. You will own the system-level models, simulations, and architectural decisions that shape how Specter’s sensors communicate - balancing long-range performance, power efficiency, resiliency, and cost. You’ll partner with RF, firmware, and software teams to design, validate, and deploy a robust multi-radio architecture across real-world industrial sites. This role is deeply cross-functional and highly impactful: your work directly defines the wireless “fabric” that Specter’s perception platform operates on.

Nice To Haves

Strong background in link-level simulation, channel modeling, and system-level performance analysis.
Expertise in 802.11 PHY/MAC, particularly 802.11ah (HaLow), or similar low-power long-range technologies and real-world RF system behavior.
Industry knowledge of RF field survey techniques and tools.
Strong experience in configuring RF devices on Linux platforms.
Hands-on experience with RF and system modeling tools (MATLAB, Simulink, NS-3) and lab instrumentation (VNA, SA, OTA chambers).
Experience supporting DVT, FCC/CE certification, production RF tuning, and large-scale operational deployments.

Responsibilities

Lead wireless network architecture: network modeling, trade studies, and performance validation across Wi-Fi HaLow, 802.11, LTE, 5G NR, and long-range sub-GHz systems.
Root-cause and optimize performance across PHY, MAC, and IP layers.
Test interoperability with third-party devices and ensure standards compliance across multiple wireless subsystems.
Develop automated RF planning and deployment modeling tools, enabling topology optimization, coverage prediction, and pre-deployment performance estimation.
Collaborate with firmware and software teams to expose critical RF and network-health metrics in the telemetry pipeline, and build monitoring, mitigation, and automation systems to ensure reliable in-field performance.
Define multi-radio system architecture for long-range backhaul and high-throughput paths across heterogeneous radios.
Build the simulation, modeling, and testing infrastructure (MATLAB, Simulink, NS-3, automated bench workflows).
Drive field validation and OTA testing across industrial, logistics, and large-area deployments.
Work cross-functionally with firmware, software, and hardware teams to ensure the wireless stack performs reliably in complex environments.
Optimize end-to-end network performance across IP routing, addressing, QoS, NAT, DHCP, VLANs, and multi-radio backhaul paths in complex topologies.