Description

Senior RF Systems Engineer

What We Need

Kymeta is seeking a Senior RF Systems Engineer to develop and integrate advanced RF sensing, radar, satellite communications, and spectrum awareness capabilities leveraging Kymeta's electronically steered antenna technology. This role will serve as a key technical contributor in the design, integration, characterization, and deployment of RF systems that extend Kymeta's technology into new operational domains.

The ideal candidate possesses a strong background in RF systems, signal processing architectures, software-defined radios, and digital receiver technologies. Working closely with systems engineers, software engineers, FPGA developers, product teams, customers, and external partners, this individual will develop and integrate RF solutions that transform customer mission requirements into deployable capabilities.

This position supports advanced applications programs focused on RF sensing, radar, passive sensing, satellite communications, geolocation, spectrum awareness, and research and development efforts. The successful candidate will be comfortable working in a fast-paced prototyping environment, moving rapidly from concept development through laboratory testing, field demonstrations, customer evaluations, and operational deployments.

KEY DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

• Serve as the RF technical lead for advanced applications involving RF sensing, radar, satellite communications, spectrum awareness, and related technologies

• Develop RF architectures and signal chains supporting sensing, communications, and radar applications

• Support integration of electronically steered antennas, software-defined radio platforms, digitizers, FPGA-based processing systems, timing sources, and networking equipment into operational systems

• Define RF performance requirements including sensitivity, dynamic range, noise figure, interference mitigation, signal quality, and system calibration

• Develop approaches for IF digitization, digital receiver architectures, and RF data transport within distributed sensing systems

• Collaborate with FPGA and software engineers to implement digital signal transport and processing architectures utilizing standards such as VITA 49 and related RF over IP frameworks

• Support development and integration of modem-centric and sensor-centric processing architectures

• Evaluate, select, and integrate commercial and government RF technologies including SDRs, digitizers, timing systems, RF sensors, converters, and signal processing platforms

• Develop and execute laboratory characterization, integration testing, calibration activities, and field demonstrations

• Analyze collected RF and system performance data to identify deficiencies, troubleshoot issues, and improve operational effectiveness

• Lead RF measurement activities utilizing spectrum analyzers, vector network analyzers, signal generators, digitizers, and other laboratory instrumentation

• Support integration of geolocation, interference detection, spectrum monitoring, and RF situational awareness capabilities

• Collaborate with systems, software, and customer teams to transform operational requirements into deployable RF solutions

• Support proposal development, customer engagements, technical briefings, and technology roadmap activities

• Ability to travel 10%

SKILLS AND EXPERIENCE

• 8+ years of RF engineering experience in communications, radar, sensing, defense, aerospace, or related technical discipline

• Strong understanding of RF receiver and transmitter architectures, frequency conversion, filtering, digitization, timing, synchronization, and calibration

• Experience with SDR platforms and digital receiver architectures

• Experience integrating RF systems with FPGA-based platforms

• Understanding of IF digitization techniques and digital transport of RF data

• Familiarity with VITA 49, digital IF, RF over IP, or similar RF transport architectures

• Experience with satellite communications, radar systems, RF sensing systems, electronic warfare systems, geolocation systems, or spectrum monitoring systems

• Strong proficiency with RF test equipment including spectrum analyzers, signal generators, vector network analyzers, oscilloscopes, and digitizers

• Experience with MATLAB and Python for RF analysis, automation, and data visualization

• Experience operating within Linux-based development and test environments

• Strong communication skills and ability to work directly with customers, partners, and multidisciplinary engineering teams

• U.S. citizenship required

• Active security clearance preferred

EDUCATION

• Bachelor's degree in electrical engineering, physics, applied physics, or a related technical discipline

• Advanced degree preferred but not required

• Equivalent combinations of education and relevant industry, military, government laboratory, or defense experience will be considered

• The ideal candidate combines strong RF engineering fundamentals with hands-on experience integrating RF, FPGA, networking, and software technologies into operational systems

COMPENSATION

Kymeta is committed to fair and equitable compensation practices. In the spirit of pay transparency, we have determined the salary range for this position to be $140,000 - $200,000. This is the full base salary range for the role. Hiring at the maximum of the range would be atypical, in order to allow for future and continued salary growth. Compensation packages are based on a variety of factors unique to each candidate, including but not limited to: skill set, years and depth of experience, certifications, and geography. The total compensation package for this position includes an annual target bonus of 10%, stock options, and benefits listed below. We believe in the importance of pay equity and consider internal equity of our current team members as a part of any final offer.

BENEFITS

We offer a competitive benefits package which includes:

Medical Plans: A choice between two competitive options

• Flexible Spending & Health Savings Accounts

Vision & Dental

Life/AD&D

Employee Assistance Program

401k

Paid Time Off

• Exempt employees: Flexible PTO and 12 paid holidays per year

• Nonexempt employees: 15 vacation days, 7 sick days and 12 paid holidays per year