Head of Spaceborne Radar Hardware Engineering

Kapta Space; Redmond (WA); On-site; USD 198,000 - 242,000; Full time

Job summary

Kapta Space in Seattle, WA, seeks a Director of Hardware Engineering to lead design, development, qualification, and flight deployment of our scalable electronically-steered radar for spaceborne ISR missions.

You will guide cross-disciplinary teams across RF/antenna, high-speed digital, power electronics, and packaging, partnering with system engineering, software, and operations to ensure performance in harsh LEO environments and on-time delivery.

Qualifications

• BS/MS, or PhD in Physics, Electrical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, or equivalent discipline.
• Significant experience developing mission-critical hardware for space and/or defense environments.
• Significant experience as a principal-level individual contributor with multi-disciplinary engineering teams.
• 10+ years of leadership/management of engineering teams across hardware disciplines.
• Technical depth in RF/Microwave, Antenna systems, Radar, high-speed digital and mixed-signal electronics and power electronics.
• Experience with PCB design, EMI/EMC practices, and mechanical/thermal packaging for high-reliability hardware.
• Proven success qualifying hardware for environmental and radiation conditions and supporting spacecraft deployments.
• Understanding of program planning, budget control, schedule execution, risk management, and cross-functional resource management.
• Excellent communication skills; able to present to senior leadership and collaborate with customers and suppliers.
• Must be eligible to obtain and hold a US DoD security clearance (TS with SCI).

Responsibilities

• Lead the definition of hardware system architecture for electronically steered radar subsystems including electronically steered antennas, RF front-ends, power electronics, high-speed digital and mixed-signal electronics, and embedded processing hardware.
• Direct full product lifecycle execution: requirements, architecture, detailed design, prototype build, environmental/radiation/EMI-EMC qualification, manufacturing introduction and spacecraft integration.
• Recruit, hire, manage and mentor cross-disciplinary engineering teams, guiding execution, staffing, team growth, and culture of ownership and innovation.
• Partner closely with system engineering, software/firmware, GNC, payload/instrument, and operations to ensure coherent hardware-software interaction, robust performance, and smooth delivery.
• Own hardware V&V and TRL-advancement strategy: signal/power integrity analysis, reliability modeling, and environmental testing (thermal, vibration, shock, vacuum, EMI/EMC, radiation).
• Proactively collaborate with Program Management Office to manage schedules, budgets, risk mitigation, and resource plans to meet mission performance and reliability targets.
• In conjunction with Program Management Office, drive manufacturability, cost efficiency, and quality through DFX (Design for Excellence) principles and NPI hand-off to production partners.
• Support engagement with customers, suppliers, and subcontractors throughout the product development life cycle.

Skills

Leadership experience

RF/Microwave engineering

Antenna systems

Radar hardware design

High-speed digital electronics

Power electronics

EMI/EMC practices

PCB design

Mechanical/thermal packaging

Systems engineering collaboration

Education

BS/MS or PhD in Physics, Electrical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering

Job description

Kapta Space in Seattle, WA, seeks a Director of Hardware Engineering to lead design, development, qualification, and flight deployment of our scalable electronically-steered radar for spaceborne ISR missions.

You will guide cross-disciplinary teams across RF/antenna, high-speed digital, power electronics, and packaging, partnering with system engineering, software, and operations to ensure performance in harsh LEO environments and on-time delivery.