Lead Electrical & RF Engineer

Acron Aviation; Grand Rapids (MI); On-site; USD 150,000 - 210,000; Full time

Job summary

Acron Aviation in Grand Rapids designs and manufactures certified avionics for safety-critical flight operations. The Lead Electrical & RF Engineer provides technical leadership across RF, electrical hardware, and systems engineering for airborne transponders, TCAS, and surveillance products.

The role directs architecture, requirements, and external design partners, driving SWaP-C optimization and certification readiness throughout the product lifecycle.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering or related field.
• 10+ years in aerospace avionics or safety-critical electronics.
• Experience leading RF and electrical hardware development programs.
• Experience managing external engineering partners.

Responsibilities

• Lead EE/RF hardware development for airborne avionics from concept to certification.
• Define architecture and allocate requirements across RF, analog, digital, and software.
• Oversee outsourced design partners and ensure certification readiness.
• Drive SWaP-C optimization and life-cycle improvements.

Skills

Leadership

RF engineering

Aerospace hardware

DO-160 knowledge

Requirements management

Systems integration

Education

Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering

Master's degree (preferred)

Tools

Altium

DOORS

RF test equipment

Job description

About Acron Aviation (Avionics – Surveillance)

Acron Aviation designs, engineers, and manufactures certified avionics systems that support safety-critical flight operations across commercial and military aviation. Within Avionics, the Surveillance product line develops and sustains systems that enable aircraft awareness, collision avoidance, and airspace interoperability. Our portfolio includes TCAS, Mode S transponders, ADS-B, and integrated surveillance solutions deployed across commercial, military, and rotorcraft platforms. This work is performed in highly regulated environments and demands deep expertise across systems, hardware, software, and RF throughout the full product lifecycle.

Position Summary

The Lead Electrical & RF Engineer is responsible for the technical leadership, architecture, development, certification support, and lifecycle management of advanced avionics systems spanning both electrical engineering and radio frequency (RF) domains. This role leads electrical, RF, and hardware engineering activities for airborne products, including transponder, TCAS, surveillance, and communications systems, while ensuring compliance with aerospace standards and customer requirements. The position serves as the primary technical authority for RF and electrical hardware development, requirements definition, and design execution, including oversight of external engineering partners and contract design organizations. The successful candidate will drive innovation in Size, Weight, Power, and Cost (SWaP-C) optimization, lead RF architecture and performance trade studies, leverage AI-enabled engineering tools to improve productivity and automation, and own the development of product hardware requirements and design documentation throughout the product lifecycle.

Technical Leadership

• Lead electrical engineering activities for the development of RF airborne avionics products from concept through certification and production
• Define system architecture and allocate requirements across RF, analog, digital, mixed-signal, software, FPGA/firmware, mechanical, and systems engineering disciplines
• Serve as technical lead for surveillance, communications, and collision avoidance products, including Mode S transponders, ADS-B systems, and TCAS equipment
• Provide technical guidance, mentorship, and engineering oversight to multidisciplinary development teams across EE and RF domains
• Support strategic product roadmaps and technology initiatives, including next-generation RF and avionics platform capabilities

RF Leadership & Integration

• Lead RF architecture, design integration, and technical decision‑making for avionics products
• Establish RF performance requirements and budgets for gain, noise figure, linearity, selectivity, isolation, spurious response, dynamic range, and coexistence requirements
• Drive RF trade studies and design reviews covering circuit design, layout, shielding, grounding, EMI/EMC, and environmental constraints
• Coordinate RF validation, laboratory characterization, and system integration activities
• Support certification readiness by ensuring RF‑related design evidence, test coverage, and compliance artifacts are complete and defensible

Requirements Development & Ownership

• Develop, maintain, and own Hardware Requirements Documents (HRDs) and associated derived requirements
• Ensure traceability between customer, system, hardware, software, and certification requirements
• Lead requirements decomposition, validation, verification planning, and change management activities
• Establish acceptance criteria and verification methods for hardware requirements

Outsourced Development Oversight

• Manage and provide technical oversight of outsourced engineering partners responsible for RF, electrical, and hardware development activities
• Define statements of work, technical deliverables, schedules, design reviews, and acceptance criteria
• Conduct design audits and technical reviews to ensure compliance with company standards and certification requirements
• Coordinate technical communication between internal stakeholders and external development organizations
• Assess supplier technical risks and implement mitigation strategies

Hardware Design & Development

• Direct the design and development of complex digital, analog, mixed-signal, RF, and power electronics hardware
• Review schematics, RF signal chain implementation, PCB layouts, component selections, engineering analyses, and test results
• Ensure designs meet performance, reliability, manufacturability, maintainability, and certification objectives
• Support RF/hardware, hardware/software, FPGA, and system‑level integration activities
• Drive design margins that support DO-160 environmental qualification and EMI/EMC robustness requirements

Product Optimization

• Lead initiatives to reduce Size, Weight, Power, and Cost (SWaP-C) across avionics product portfolios
• Drive design trade studies that balance performance, manufacturability, certification, and lifecycle objectives
• Promote Design for Manufacturability, Design for Cost, Design for Test, and Design for Reliability principlesEstablish engineering metrics and practices supporting next‑generation avionics solutions

Artificial Intelligence & Engineering Automation

• Champion the adoption of AI technologies to improve engineering productivity, quality, and development efficiency
• Maintain a continuous improvement mindset and evaluate opportunities to streamline engineering workflows
• Evaluate emerging AI technologies and integrate effective practices into engineering processes to reduce repetitive and low‑value work

Verification & Validation

• Lead hardware verification and validation activities throughout the product lifecycle, primarily through oversight of outsourced development partners
• Review and approve test plans, procedures, reports, and qualification data
• Support root cause analysis, troubleshooting, and corrective action investigations
• Ensure complete verification coverage and certification evidence generation

Basic Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering or a related engineering discipline
• 10+ years of experience in aerospace, avionics, or safety‑critical electronic product development
• 5+ years of technical leadership experience leading complex avionics RF and electrical hardware development programs
• Experience managing and overseeing external engineering design partners or contract development organizations
• Strong understanding of RTCA DO-160 environmental qualification requirements and RF/EE integration challenges in airborne systems
• Experience developing and managing hardware requirements documentation and requirements traceability
• Expertise in digital, analog, mixed‑signal, RF, and power electronics design
• Experience supporting certification and regulatory compliance activities

Preferred Qualifications

• Master's degree in Electrical Engineering or related discipline
• Experience with FAA, EASA, TSO, ETSO, and military avionics programs
• Familiarity with DO-254, DO-178C, ARP4754A, and ARP4761 development processes
• Deep experience with RF systems and surveillance technologies including Mode S Transponders, ADS-B, IFF, DME, TCAS, or ACAS
• Experience implementing AI‑assisted engineering workflows and automation solutions
• Experience with DOORS requirements management
• Experience with Altium design tools
• Project leadership or engineering management experience

Equal Opportunity Statement

Acron Aviation is proud to be an Affinative Action and Equal Opportunity Employer. We are committed to treating all employees and applicants with respect and dignity and to maintaining a workplace free from unlawful discrimination. All applicants will be considered for employment regardless of race, color, religion, age, national origin, ancestry, ethnicity, gender (including pregnancy, childbirth, breastfeeding, or other related medical conditions), gender identity, gender expression, sexual orientation, marital status, veteran status, disability, genetic information, citizenship status, or any other legally protected characteristic.

Additional Information

Acron Aviation maintains a drug‑free workplace and conducts pre‑employment substance abuse testing and background checks, where allowed by law. Acron Aviation is an E‑Verify employer.

We may use artificial intelligence (AI) tools to support parts of the hiring process, such as reviewing applications, analyzing resumes, or assessing responses and identifying potential inconsistencies or verification signals in application materials based on available information. These tools assist our recruitment team but do not replace human judgment. Final hiring decisions are ultimately made by humans. If you would like more information about how your data is processed, please contact us.