Principal Communications Systems Design Engineer at The Charles Stark Draper Laboratory in Reston, VA

Equal Employment Opportunity

Draper is committed to creating a diverse environment and is proud to be an affirmative action and equal opportunity employer. We understand the value of diversity and its impact on a high-performance culture. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, disability, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, veteran status, or genetic information.

Draper is committed to providing access, equal opportunity and reasonable accommodation for individuals with disabilities in employment, its services, programs, and activities. To request reasonable accommodation, please contact hr@draper.com.

Responsibilities

Draper Laboratory is seeking talented and motivated individuals to tackle challenging engineering problems. As a Principal Communication Systems Designer, you will be responsible for architecting new communication signals with applications to complex electronic systems for various environments; you will perform digital signal processing and signals analysis; you will guide implementation of demos in the lab, as well as fieldable prototypes; you will design comms operational capabilities for a wide diversity of applications and support strategic business development. You will work in a fast paced environment, collaborating in multi-disciplinary teams with opportunities to learn, grow, and contribute to a variety of projects in this area.

Applicants should possess solid skills in developing novel communication signals with applications in complex electronic systems and operational experience designing waveforms. You should also have familiarity with state-of-the-art digital signal processing methods and digital communication systems.

Specific Responsibilities

• Architect communication signals with applications to complex electronic systems
• Model and simulate RF signals and channels for different applications and environments
• Design and integrate communication systems
• Specify system architecture and requirements based on customer needs
• Support business development, write proposals, white papers, and technical documents
• Deliver technical presentations to internal and external customers
• Mentor junior colleagues and support technology roadmap development

Qualifications

Required Qualifications:

• PhD, MS+10, or BS+12 in Electrical Engineering or similar
• Expert knowledge architecting communication waveforms and protocols at the PHY-MAC layers
• 8+ years application of signal processing methods for signal analysis and waveform generation
• 4+ years experience analyzing and designing waveforms to meet requirements for various applications and environments
• Strong skills in RF theory, digital signal processing, and wireless communications
• Experience performing lab demos and execution of comms system integration
• Capability to work on fast paced projects, guiding quick-turn experiments and rapid prototyping
• Proven successful proposal writing

Preferred Qualifications:

• MSEE+10 or PhD in Electrical Engineering
• Experience leading comms systems design and being the lead defining system architecture
• Deep knowledge doing signal propagation and communication channel modeling
• Hands-on experience with SDR, GNU radios
• Experience implementing fieldable prototypes and doing field testing
• Experience with MATLAB simulation and modeling of RF signals and channels
• Experience with detection and estimation techniques
• Familiarity with Edge AI, machine learning algorithms
• Author of Intellectual Property, whitepapers, conference or journal publications

Security Requirement:

• Applicants selected for this position will be required to obtain and maintain a U.S. Security Clearance