RF Modem Engineer (35384)

Myticas Consulting; Ottawa; On-site; CAD 110,000 - 140,000; Full time

Job summary

Myticas Consulting is seeking a technically skilled RF Lead to drive the design, integration, and lifecycle management of advanced RF modules for broadband wireless and high-speed communications. You will define architectures, budgets, and ensure performance across process, voltage, temperature, aging, and environmental conditions.

You will review schematics, lead manufacturability reviews, and serve as the primary engineering interface with contract manufacturers and suppliers.

Qualifications

• Experience leading RF module design and lifecycle management.
• Experience defining RF architectures with performance budgets (gain, NF, linearity, phase noise, DR, spurious).
• Ability to ensure RF subsystems meet specs across environmental conditions.
• Experience with RF grounding, isolation, signal integrity, high-speed layout, EMI/EMC mitigation.
• Experience interfacing with contract manufacturers and suppliers.
• Experience design for manufacturability, testability, serviceability.
• Experience with RF test measurements (EVM, harmonics, spurious emissions, ACLR, phase noise).

Responsibilities

• Serve as the technical lead for the design, integration, and lifecycle management of advanced RF modules.
• Define RF architectures and establish performance budgets, including gain, noise figure, linearity, phase noise, dynamic range, and spurious emissions.
• Ensure RF subsystem performance meets specifications across process, voltage, temperature, aging, and environmental operating conditions.
• Perform system-level trade studies and evaluate the impact of changing technical requirements, component selections, and operating environments.
• Review and approve RF schematics, PCB layouts, and design documentation developed by internal engineering teams and external design partners.
• Ensure best practices are followed for RF grounding and isolation, signal integrity and high-speed layout, EMI/EMC mitigation, thermal management, and mixed-signal design.
• Participate in design reviews, technical readiness assessments, and product milestone reviews while identifying technical risks and recommending mitigation strategies.
• Act as the primary engineering interface with contract manufacturers, fabrication partners, assembly houses, and component suppliers.
• Lead DFM, DFT, and DFS reviews to maximize production yield, reliability, and long-term manufacturability.
• Develop and maintain manufacturing test strategies, acceptance and qualification criteria, golden reference units, calibration plans.
• Analyze manufacturing data, yield trends, and field returns to identify root causes and implement corrective actions.
• Manage ECRs and ECOs, ensuring full product lifecycle traceability.
• Develop RF, functional, and system-level test procedures.
• Support laboratory validation and production testing, including measurements such as EVM, MER, ACLR, phase noise, harmonics, and frequency response.
• Partner with systems, hardware, and test engineering teams to ensure complete requirements verification and traceability.
• Support environmental qualification, thermal characterization, vibration testing, and long-term reliability validation for high-performance communications products.
• Collaborate with embedded software and firmware teams responsible for configuring, controlling, and monitoring RF hardware.
• Review and support embedded interfaces including SPI, I2C, UART, GPIO, and other hardware communication protocols.
• Support board bring-up, hardware calibration, compensation algorithms, telemetry, diagnostics, and health monitoring functions.
• Ensure embedded control software supports both manufacturing test environments and deployed field operations.
• Provide technical leadership throughout the product lifecycle, from concept through production and sustaining engineering.
• Investigate customer issues, manufacturing defects, and field failures, implementing corrective and preventive actions.
• Evaluate component obsolescence risks and identify replacements while maintaining performance and regulatory compliance.
• Work with cross-functional teams to deliver reliable, high-performance RF products on schedule.

Skills

RF design

PCB review

System-level trade studies

DFM/DFT/DFS

EMI/EMC mitigation

Embedded interfaces (SPI, I2C, UART)

Manufacturing liaison

Job description

• Serve as the technical lead for the design, integration, and lifecycle management of advanced RF modules supporting broadband wireless, satellite, or high-speed communications systems.
• Define RF architectures and establish performance budgets, including gain, noise figure, linearity, phase noise, dynamic range, and spurious emissions.
• Ensure RF subsystem performance meets specifications across process, voltage, temperature, aging, and environmental operating conditions.
• Perform system-level trade studies and evaluate the impact of changing technical requirements, component selections, and operating environments.
• Review and approve RF schematics, PCB layouts, and design documentation developed by internal engineering teams and external design partners.
• Ensure best practices are followed for:
  • RF grounding and isolation
  • Signal integrity and high-speed layout
  • Thermal management
  • Mixed-signal design and partitioning
• Participate in design reviews, technical readiness assessments, and product milestone reviews while identifying technical risks and recommending mitigation strategies.
• Act as the primary engineering interface with contract manufacturers, fabrication partners, assembly houses, and component suppliers.
• Lead Design for Manufacturability (DFM), Design for Testability (DFT), and Design for Serviceability (DFS) reviews to maximize production yield, reliability, and long-term manufacturability.
• Develop and maintain:
  • Manufacturing test strategies
  • Acceptance and qualification criteria
  • Correlation and calibration plans
  • Support engineering validation, design verification, production validation, and manufacturing ramp-up activities.
• Analyze manufacturing data, yield trends, and field returns to identify root causes and implement corrective actions.
• Manage Engineering Change Requests (ECRs) and Engineering Change Orders (ECOs), ensuring full product lifecycle traceability.
• Develop and maintain RF, functional, and system-level test procedures.
• Support laboratory validation and production testing, including measurements such as:
  • Error Vector Magnitude (EVM)
  • Harmonics and Spurious Emissions
  • Frequency response and waveform compliance
• Partner with systems, hardware, and test engineering teams to ensure complete requirements verification and traceability.
• Support environmental qualification, thermal characterization, vibration testing, and long-term reliability validation for high-performance communications products.

RF Module Technical Leadership

• Serve as the technical lead for the design, integration, and lifecycle management of advanced RF modules supporting broadband wireless, satellite, or high-speed communications systems.
• Define RF architectures and establish performance budgets, including gain, noise figure, linearity, phase noise, dynamic range, and spurious emissions.
• Ensure RF subsystem performance meets specifications across process, voltage, temperature, aging, and environmental operating conditions.
• Perform system-level trade studies and evaluate the impact of changing technical requirements, component selections, and operating environments.

RF Design Review & Engineering Oversight

• Review and approve RF schematics, PCB layouts, and design documentation developed by internal engineering teams and external design partners.
• Ensure best practices are followed for:
  • RF grounding and isolation
  • Signal integrity and high-speed layout
  • EMI/EMC mitigation
  • Thermal management
  • Mixed-signal design and partitioning
• Participate in design reviews, technical readiness assessments, and product milestone reviews while identifying technical risks and recommending mitigation strategies.

Manufacturing & Product Industrialization

• Act as the primary engineering interface with contract manufacturers, fabrication partners, assembly houses, and component suppliers.
• Lead Design for Manufacturability (DFM), Design for Testability (DFT), and Design for Serviceability (DFS) reviews to maximize production yield, reliability, and long-term manufacturability.
• Develop and maintain:
  • Manufacturing test strategies
  • Acceptance and qualification criteria
  • Golden reference units
  • Correlation and calibration plans
• Support engineering validation, design verification, production validation, and manufacturing ramp-up activities.
• Analyze manufacturing data, yield trends, and field returns to identify root causes and implement corrective actions.
• Manage Engineering Change Requests (ECRs) and Engineering Change Orders (ECOs), ensuring full product lifecycle traceability.

RF Test, Validation & Verification

• Develop and maintain RF, functional, and system-level test procedures.
• Support laboratory validation and production testing, including measurements such as:
  • Error Vector Magnitude (EVM)
  • Modulation Error Ratio (MER)
  • Adjacent Channel Leakage Ratio (ACLR)
  • Phase Noise
  • Harmonics and Spurious Emissions
  • Frequency response and waveform compliance
• Partner with systems, hardware, and test engineering teams to ensure complete requirements verification and traceability.
• Support environmental qualification, thermal characterization, vibration testing, and long-term reliability validation for high-performance communications products.

Embedded Systems & Firmware Integration

• Collaborate with embedded software and firmware teams responsible for configuring, controlling, and monitoring RF hardware.
• Review and support embedded interfaces including SPI, I²C, UART, GPIO, and other hardware communication protocols.
• Support board bring-up, hardware calibration, compensation algorithms, telemetry, diagnostics, and health monitoring functions.
• Ensure embedded control software supports both manufacturing test environments and deployed field operations.

Product Lifecycle & Sustaining Engineering

• Provide technical leadership throughout the entire product lifecycle, from concept development through production and sustaining engineering.
• Investigate customer issues, manufacturing defects, and field failures, implementing corrective and preventive actions where required.
• Evaluate component obsolescence risks and identify suitable replacement components while maintaining product performance and regulatory compliance.
• Work closely with cross-functional teams including systems engineering, hardware, firmware, software, manufacturing, quality, supply chain, and customer support to deliver reliable, high-performance RF products on schedule.