RF Systems Engineer

MASS; Salisbury; On-site; GBP 40,000 - 60,000; Full time

Job summary

A reputable engineering firm in Salisbury is seeking an RF Systems Engineer to support testing and optimisation of RF systems. This role requires understanding of RF technology and collaboration with various stakeholders. The ideal candidate will possess a STEM degree or equivalent experience and be proficient with RF test equipment. This position offers a competitive salary and a range of employee benefits, emphasizing wellbeing and support for professional development.

Benefits

25 days annual leave inclusive of up to 3 days Christmas shutdown

Buy or sell up to 5 days annual leave

Annual Wellbeing allowance

Two pension schemes to choose from

Private Medical Insurance

Life Assurance scheme up to 4x salary

Career development support

Share Save scheme

Electric/Hybrid Car leasing scheme

Cycle to work scheme

Retail discounts

Responsibilities

• Support testing and optimisation of RF receiver hardware.
• Liaise with military, academia, industry, and international stakeholders.
• Drive requirements through analysis of current EW systems.

Skills

Ability to work autonomously to optimise complex EW system performance

Understanding of RF sensor systems and Test & Evaluation practices

Proficient with RF test equipment (signal generators, oscilloscopes, and spectrum analysers)

Experience calibrating hardware and software models into a laboratory environment

STEM Degree or extensive experience with RF Electronics

Education

STEM Degree

Tools

MATLAB

Python

Job description

RF Systems Engineer – Porton Down - Permanent – On-site

• £40000 - £60000
• 25 days annual leave inclusive of up to 3 days Christmas shutdown
• Buy or sell up to 5 days’ annual leave
• Annual Wellbeing allowance
• Two pension schemes to choose from
• Private Medical Insurance + discounts for additional family members
• Life Assurance scheme up to 4 x salary
• Share Save scheme
• Electric/Hybrid Car leasing scheme
• Cycle to work scheme
• Retail discounts
• Career development support

Come and join our expanding Electronic Warfare Operations Support Group (EWOS) which is made up of 60+ electronic warfare specialists. From all manner of backgrounds, our engineers, scientists, and ex-military personnel combine their experience to help our customers achieve the true operational potential and help keep their people and platforms safe.

We are continuing to grow our team at Porton Down, Salisbury, working on key state-of-the-art research, development, and delivery projects, led by our technical customer, Dstl.

The primary role is to support testing and optimisation of RF receiver hardware in a new synthetic range (laboratory), with additional support to over‑air testing (anechoic chamber) and field trials. This will require using a range of RF test equipment to perform digital and analogue injection testing within synthetic EW scenarios.

This role will allow autonomy to explore ways to optimise RF receiver performance through configurable memory (mission data) to improve real‑world operation of the system when deployed to target platforms. This exploratory process will focus on the increasingly congested and contested electromagnetic environment, developing tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTP) for the RF receiver.

To accurately represent the synthetic use cases these systems are required to integrate into, the role will liaise with military, academia, industry and international stakeholders, to complete the validation process.

This new lab will be using the latest commercial‑off‑the‑shelf (COTS) development Radio Frequency System on Chip (RFSoC) boards to achieve a high‑fidelity electromagnetic environment. You will become an expert in configuring and calibrating these devices to aid testing of the RF receiver systems.

This role also has influence over future development work, driving requirements through analysis of current EW systems. As such and understanding of requirements generation and the engineering lifecycle will be valuable to the role.

Working autonomously with unprecedented access to the customer, you will be crucial to ensure the success of these key projects, all whilst being supported by our on‑site and home‑site MASS teams.

The invaluable experience you’ll bring, to help us achieve more.

Essential:

• Ability to work autonomously to optimise complex EW system performance.
• Understanding of RF sensor systems and Test & Evaluation (T&E) practices.
• Proficient with RF test equipment (signal generators, oscilloscopes, and spectrum analysers).
• Experience calibrating hardware and software models into a laboratory environment.
• STEM Degree or extensive experience with RF Electronics.

Desirable:

• Experience creating scripts/programmes (MATLAB, Python, or similar).
• Strong background in EW systems and concepts, including radar systems.
• Experience across the engineering lifecycle (Requirements, V&V, Acceptance).
• Understanding of Analogue & Digital Signal Processing techniques.

Wellbeingis at the core to our culture, allowingemployees to flourish and to achieve their full potential. Our people are important to us, and we take pride in our wellbeing programmes and policies that supportindividuals including, mental health first aiders and readily available support through our extensive employee assistance programme

Our non-negotiables:

Due to the highly secure nature of the projects that you will be involved with, youmustbe:

• A UK National and eligible to work in the UK
• Eligible to obtain and maintain a UK Government SC‑level security clearance

Apply todayto see how working for MASS could work for you!