Lead Space Radar Engineer for Mars Orbiter

Relativity Space, Inc.; Long Beach, Northern (CA, KY); Hybrid; USD 175,000 - 263,000; Full time

Job summary

Relativity Space, Inc. seeks a technical lead for a wideband UHF shallow radar sounder on a Mars orbiter program. You will own the instrument from design to spacecraft integration, calibrate and commission, with no midstream hand-offs, coordinating across RF, digital, and mechanical teams.

You will drive waveform studies, co-design with science partners, and ensure instrument meets mission objectives while maintaining budgets, schedules, and risk controls.

Qualifications

• 7+ years of experience in electrical hardware development.
• Experince with radar system performance budgets.

Responsibilities

• Own the system design for radar electronics, signal processing chain, and antenna system at vehicle level for both sounder and radiometer modes.
• Lead waveform trade studies and co-design with science team to meet objectives.
• Lead hardware development, including prototype development and brass-board validation.
• Define instrument calibration scheme for radar and radiometer modes.
• Coordinate hardware development across RF, digital, power, and mechanical disciplines, plus firmware/software.
• Lead instrument qualification, integration into spacecraft, and test campaigns.
• Perform spectrum licensing and frequency coordination for operation and on-orbit commissioning.

Skills

Radar hardware development

Software-defined radios

FPGA processing

RF circuit design

Antenna design

Spectrum coordination

Tools

RFSoC (AMD Xilinx)

Zynq UltraScale+

FPGA design tools

RF spectrum coordination tools

Job description

Relativity Space, Inc. seeks a technical lead for a wideband UHF shallow radar sounder on a Mars orbiter program. You will own the instrument from design to spacecraft integration, calibrate and commission, with no midstream hand-offs, coordinating across RF, digital, and mechanical teams.

You will drive waveform studies, co-design with science partners, and ensure instrument meets mission objectives while maintaining budgets, schedules, and risk controls.