Principal Engineer (Tactical Radios)

Chitra Productions; Northern (KY); Hybrid; USD 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Job summary

Chitra Productions is seeking a Principal Engineer (Tactical Radios) to support the CBL Battle Lab at Fort Gordon, GA. This onsite role focuses on designing and integrating tactical radio systems, analyzing requirements, and ensuring interoperability across multiple platforms.

The engineer will lead technical reviews, mentor staff, and contribute to cybersecurity and compliance activities for secure communications architectures. A PMP/CISSP-like profile is preferred but not mandatory.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering, Systems Engineering, Computer Engineering, Telecommunications, or related field.
• 8–15+ years of experience in tactical communications, RF engineering, or military communication systems.
• Experience with tactical radio integration and network design.
• Strong understanding of RF communications principles, tactical networking, digital communications systems, secure communications technologies, and military standards.

Responsibilities

• Design, develop, integrate, and support tactical radio communication systems.
• Analyze operational requirements and translate them into technical solutions.
• Develop radio architectures for voice, data, video, and situational awareness.
• Evaluate system performance in contested environments and support system-of-systems integration.
• Integrate radios into larger command-and-control and network architectures.

Skills

RF engineering

Tactical networking

Digital communications

Secure communications

Military standards

Network design

SATCOM & LOS

SME leadership

Test planning

V&V

Education

Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering or related

Tools

MATLAB

RF analyzers

Job description

Principal Engineer (Tactical Radios) to provide support to the CBL Battle Lab
Facility located at Fort Gordon, GA. All work will be performed onsite. This contract will
support the CBL mission to provide experimentation support to the C- CDID with dynamic
network experimentation integrated with CO, DODIN-A, EW, and IA through the Cyber Battle
Lab’s Experimentation Branch (EB), Environments Support Branch (ESB), and the Army
Persistent Experimentation Environment (APEN) Cyber Enterprise Service Center (CESC). The
The CBL Experimentation Support contract will provide support in the form of experiments,
assessments, analyses, and network support that will validate proposed new technical solutions to
resolve known Doctrine, Organization, Training, Material, Leadership & Education, Personnel,
Facilities Policy (DOTMLPF-P) capability gaps within the CO, EW, Network, and IA force
modernization lines of effort.

Tactical Radio Systems Engineering

• Design, develop, integrate, and support tactical radio communication systems.
• Analyze operational requirements and translate them into technical solutions.
• Develop radio architectures supporting voice, data, video, and situational awareness applications.
• Evaluate communication system performance in contested and dynamic environments.
• Support system-of-systems integration across multiple communication platforms.

Tactical Network Integration

• Integrate tactical radios into larger command-and-control and network architectures.
• Configure and support:
• MANET networks
• SATCOM systems
• Line-of-Sight (LOS) communications
• Beyond-Line-of-Sight (BLOS) communications
• IP-based tactical networks
• Ensure interoperability between communication systems and mission platforms.

Testing & Validation

• Develop test plans, procedures, and verification strategies.
• Conduct laboratory, field, and operational testing.
• Analyze test results and recommend corrective actions.
• Support customer demonstrations and operational evaluations.

Technical Leadership

• Serve as Subject Matter Expert (SME) for tactical radio technologies.
• Lead technical design reviews and engineering assessments.
• Mentor engineers and technicians.
• Provide technical recommendations to program leadership and customers.

Cybersecurity & Compliance:

• Ensure tactical communication systems comply with security requirements.
• Support secure communications architectures and cryptographic integration.
• Assist with cybersecurity assessments and risk mitigation activities.

Required Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering, Systems Engineering, Computer Engineering, Telecommunications, or related field.
• 8–15+ years of experience in tactical communications, RF engineering, or military communication systems.
• Experience with tactical radio integration and network design.
• Strong understanding of:
• RF communications principles
• Tactical networking
• Digital communications systems
• Secure communications technologies
• Military communication standards

Preferred Experience:

• Experience with tactical radio platforms such as:
• L3Harris Technologies Falcon radios
• Viasat tactical communication systems
• Thales tactical radios
• BAE Systems communication solutions
• General Dynamics Mission Systems tactical networking products

Experience supporting military communication standards, such as:

• SINCGARS
• TSM
• SRW
• WNW
• Link 16
• SATCOM waveforms

Preferred Certifications:

• Project Management Professional (PMP)
• Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP)
• CompTIA Security+
• Relevant RF, wireless, or systems engineering certifications

Technical Skills

• Radio & RF Technologies
• Software Defined Radio (SDR)
• RF propagation analysis
• Spectrum management
• Antenna systems
• Link budget analysis
• Electronic warfare considerations
• Networking
• MANET
• Tactical IP networking
• Routing protocols
• Network management systems
• QoS and bandwidth optimization
• Tools & Platforms
• MATLAB
• RF modeling and simulation tools
• Spectrum analyzers
• Network analyzers

• Protocol analyzers
• Test automation tools
• Systems Engineering
• Requirements management
• Verification & Validation (V&V)
• System integration
• Architecture development
• Risk management