Virginia, United States
Onsite
E-Space is seeking a Senior RF Front-End Design Engineer to develop transmit and receive electronics for satellite communication user terminals. This is a hands-on role for an engineer who can translate system and link requirements into robust RF hardware and take designs from architecture through device-level circuit design, PCB implementation, prototype bring-up, validation, and production release.
The successful candidate will work closely with antenna, modem, baseband, firmware, power, mechanical, thermal, test, and manufacturing teams to deliver efficient and reliable user-terminal RF hardware.
Own RF front-end designs from system requirements and architecture through schematic capture, PCB layout, prototype bring-up, verification, and production release.
Develop transmit and receive chains using power amplifiers, low-noise amplifiers, filters, duplexers, diplexers, switches, couplers, attenuators, mixers, synthesizers, transceivers, and frequency-conversion devices.
Translate link-budget requirements into RF specifications for output power, sensitivity, noise figure, gain, linearity, dynamic range, bandwidth, EVM, adjacent-channel performance, phase noise, spurious emissions, and efficiency.
Perform cascaded RF analyses covering gain, noise figure, sensitivity, P1dB, IP3, dynamic range, compression, EVM, phase noise, spurious performance, and link margin.
Design device-level RF circuits, impedance-matching networks, bias networks, stability networks, power detectors, and protection circuits.
Select RF components based on electrical performance, power consumption, thermal behavior, size, availability, cost, manufacturability, and reliability.
Simulate RF circuits using Keysight ADS, Cadence AWR, or equivalent circuit and electromagnetic simulation tools.
Define and review RF PCB stackups, controlled-impedance transmission lines, grounding, shielding, component placement, isolation, and critical RF routing.
Develop architectures supporting TDD, FDD, or simultaneous transmit and receive, as required.
Analyze transmitter leakage, receiver desensitization, harmonics, intermodulation, oscillator leakage, switching noise, and digital interference.
Integrate the RF front end with the antenna, modem, baseband processor, ADC/DAC, firmware, power system, enclosure, and thermal solution.
Plan and perform RF measurements using VNAs, spectrum analyzers, signal generators, power meters, noise-figure analyzers, oscilloscopes, and communication signal analyzers.
Measure and optimize gain, noise figure, sensitivity, output power, EVM, ACPR or ACLR, harmonics, spurious emissions, stability, and efficiency.
Correlate simulations with measured results, identify root causes of discrepancies, and drive corrective actions.
Support environmental testing for user-terminal conditions, including temperature cycling, vibration, shock, humidity, and outdoor operation.
Develop production calibration, test limits, automated test methods, and manufacturing verification strategies.
Document requirements, analyses, schematics, design decisions, test procedures, results, and technical risks.
Mentor engineers and technicians and help establish repeatable RF design and validation practices.
Bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering or a related field.
Typically 7 or more years of hands-on RF or microwave hardware design experience.
Demonstrated experience designing RF front-end hardware from requirements through production release.
Strong understanding of transmit and receive architectures, impedance matching, gain, noise figure, linearity, stability, dynamic range, and RF filtering.
Hands-on experience with RF circuit simulation tools such as Keysight ADS, Cadence AWR, or equivalent.
Experience with schematic capture, RF PCB layout review, prototype bring-up, debugging, and characterization.
Experience designing with PAs, LNAs, filters, switches, mixers, synthesizers, transceivers, or related RF components.
Hands-on experience using VNAs, spectrum analyzers, signal generators, power meters, and other RF laboratory equipment.
Ability to correlate simulated and measured results and resolve RF performance problems systematically.
Strong technical communication and cross-functional collaboration skills.
Strong knowledge and understanding of satellite communication systems, with the ability to derive detailed technical requirements from high-level objectives and system direction.
Experience with satellite communication terminals, cellular devices, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GNSS, IoT radios, or other wireless products.
Experience with modem-to-antenna RF architectures and complete wireless signal chains.
Experience optimizing PA performance for output power, efficiency, EVM, linearity, and adjacent-channel emissions.
Experience optimizing receiver sensitivity while managing filter loss, LNA gain, interference, and ADC dynamic range.
Familiarity with TDD/FDD isolation, receiver desensitization, coexistence, self-interference, and transmitter-noise requirements.
Experience with RF shielding, EMI/EMC, grounding, power-supply noise, and digital-interface interference.
Experience developing production calibration and automated RF test methods.
Familiarity with outdoor-terminal regulatory, environmental, reliability, and manufacturability requirements.
Experience supporting medium- or high-volume production.
Phased-array antenna/RFFE experience is beneficial.
