RF Systems Engineer — Defence Tech, Contested Environments

Helsing; Oxford; On-site; GBP 60,000 - 90,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Competitive salary and VSOP options

Relocation support

Learning: yearly allowance

Health & wellbeing: gym + mentalhealth

Social: events and allowances

Enhanced parental leave

Family support

Infraduction onboarding

Job summary

Helsing is seeking an RF Engineer to join the Physical Products team in Oxford. You will design and integrate RF front‑ends, antennas and related hardware for our defence platforms, translating requirements into a robust RF architecture.

You will work across the full chain—from antenna design through to link budgets and EW resilience—hands‑on with real hardware, testing and validating in real environments rather than simulations.

Qualifications

• Have designed and integrated RF systems in a professional engineering context.
• Understand RF fundamentals deeply enough to reason from first principles, propagation, antenna theory, link budgets, modulation schemes, noise, and interference.
• Have hands-on experience with RF test and measurement equipment, and are comfortable debugging real hardware, not just simulation output.
• Have worked on systems that need to survive a contested or degraded RF environment, or can reason confidently about what that requires even without direct experience.
• Can interpret complex datasheets and specifications for RF components (amplifiers, filters, mixers, antennas) and translate them into sound design decisions.
• Collaborate effectively across disciplines, electronics, software, systems and communicate clearly in written and spoken English.

Responsibilities

• Design RF front-ends, antennas, and hardware trade-offs for platform missions.
• Own link budget analysis for communications and telemetry systems.
• Work on resilience to contested EM environments and interference.
• Integrate RF systems into wider electrical architecture and ensure EMI/grounding compatibility.
• Hands-on with RF test gear to characterize and validate real hardware.
• Collaborate with electronics, software, and systems engineers to ensure clean integration.
• Support field testing and feed results back into design.
• Produce clear documentation, budgets, test reports and interface definitions.

Skills

RF design experience

RF fundamentals

RF test equipment

RF resilience

RF components datasheets

English communication

Tools

HFSS

CST

GNU Radio

MATLAB RF toolbox

Job description

Helsing is seeking an RF Engineer to join the Physical Products team in Oxford. You will design and integrate RF front‑ends, antennas and related hardware for our defence platforms, translating requirements into a robust RF architecture.

You will work across the full chain—from antenna design through to link budgets and EW resilience—hands‑on with real hardware, testing and validating in real environments rather than simulations.