DevOps Senior RF Systems Engineer

Viasat; United Kingdom; Hybrid; GBP 90,000 - 140,000; Full time

Job summary

Viasat in London seeks an experienced Senior RF Systems Engineer to design, integrate, and test earth station RF systems across multiple bands, with a strong emphasis on link budgets and system performance.

You will contribute to DiFi and RFoIP programs, deploy cloud-based signal processing workloads on AWS/GCP, and maintain CI/CD pipelines and IaC modules. This is a hands-on, individual contributor role requiring on-call availability.

Qualifications

• 8-12 years ground station system design, integration, and test experience.
• Degree in Electrical/Electronic Engineering or Telecommunications.
• Hands-on RF expertise across multiple frequency bands with strong link budget and test skills.
• Working knowledge of DiFi/VITA 49, RFoIP, DevOps CI/CD, AWS/GCP, and AI engineering tools.
• Seeking a technical individual contributor role with no people management responsibility.

Responsibilities

• Perform detailed RF system design and analysis: link budgets, G/T, EIRP, linearity, antenna characterization across L/S/C/Ku/Ka/Q/V bands.
• Plan, execute, and document FAT, SAT, and IOT test campaigns for RF systems.
• Contribute to DiFi digitiser chain design, validation, and interoperability testing.
• Contribute to RFoIP encapsulation, QoS, PTP synchronisation, and SDR modem integration.
• Develop and maintain CI/CD pipeline stages, IaC modules (Ansible/Terraform), and automated RF test scripts.
• Deploy and support containerised RF signal processing workloads on AWS EKS or GCP GKE.
• Contribute to cloud RF data pipelines using AWS Kinesis / GCP Pub/Sub and post-pass analysis via Athena / BigQuery.
• Apply AI/ML tools to engineering workflows: LLMs for documentation, anomaly detection on RF telemetry, AI-assisted simulation.
• Provide third-line RF support to Operations and NOC, including on-call rota participation.
• Produce and maintain engineering documentation (ICDs, test plans, acceptance reports) to P&CSE quality standards.
• Travel to earth station sites and supplier facilities as required by programme activities.

Skills

RF systems engineering

Cloud platforms AWS/GCP

CI/CD DevOps

On-call support

Test & integration

Education

Bachelor's degree in Electrical/Electronic Engineering or Telecommunications

Tools

DiFi/VITA 49

RFoIP

AWS

GCP

Ansible/Terraform

Job description

About us

One team. Global challenges. Infinite opportunities. At Viasat, we’re on a mission to deliver connections with the capacity to change the world. For more than 35 years, Viasat has helped shape how consumers, businesses, governments and militaries around the globe communicate. We’re looking for people who think big, act fearlessly, and create an inclusive environment that drives positive impact to join our team.

What you'll do

An experienced individual contributor within P&CSE, the Senior RF Systems Engineer delivers complex hands-on technical work across the satellite ground station engineering lifecycle with a high degree of autonomy. This is a purely technical role with no people management responsibilities and no direct reports. The postholder designs, integrates, and tests earth station RF systems; contributes to DiFi (VITA 49) and RFoIP programmes; deploys cloud-based (AWS / GCP) signal processing workloads; maintains DevOps pipelines and IaC modules; and applies AI tools to engineering workflows. The role includes participation in the P&CSE oncall rota. Candidates must be willing and able to fulfil this requirement as a condition of employment.

The day-to-day

• Perform detailed RF system design and analysis: link budgets, G/T, EIRP, linearity, antenna system characterisation across L/S/C/Ku/Ka/Q/V bands.
• Plan, execute, and document FAT, SAT, and IOT test campaigns for new and upgraded earth station RF systems.
• Contribute to DiFi (VITA 49) digitiser chain design, validation, and interoperability testing.
• Contribute to RFoIP encapsulation, QoS, PTP synchronisation, and SDR modem integration activities.
• Develop and maintain CI/CD pipeline stages, IaC modules (Ansible/Terraform), and automated RF test scripts.
• Deploy and support containerised RF signal processing workloads on AWS EKS or GCP GKE.
• Contribute to cloud RF data pipelines using AWS Kinesis / GCP Pub/Sub and post-pass analysis via Athena / BigQuery.
• Apply AI/ML tools to engineering workflows: LLMs for documentation, anomaly detection on RF telemetry, AI-assisted simulation.
• Provide third-line RF support to Operations and NOC, including on-call rota participation.
• Produce and maintain engineering documentation (ICDs, test plans, acceptance reports) to P&CSE quality standards.
• Travel to earth station sites and supplier facilities as required by programme activities.

What you'll need

• 8-12 years ground station system design, integration, and test experience.
• Degree in Electrical/Electronic Engineering or Telecommunications.
• Proven hands-on RF expertise across multiple frequency bands with strong link budget and test skills.
• Working knowledge of DiFi/VITA 49, RFoIP, DevOps CI/CD, AWS/GCP, and AI engineering tools.
• Seeking a technical individual contributor role with no people management responsibility.

What will help you on the job

• Fully available for P&CSE on-call rota and international travel. Based in or able to commute to London.

EEO Statement

Viasat is proud to be an equal opportunity employer, seeking to create a welcoming and diverse environment. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, national origin, ancestry, physical or mental disability, medical condition, marital status, genetics, age, or veteran status or any other applicable legally protected status or characteristic. If you would like to request an accommodation on the basis of disability for completing this on-line application.