Principal RF Electrical Engineer

HawkEye 360; Herndon (VA); On-site; USD 170,000 - 200,000; Full time

Job summary

HawkEye 360 is seeking a Principal RF Electrical Engineer and Team Lead to guide the Space Team in designing, building, and testing satellite RF systems and electronics. You will supervise a small team while remaining hands-on with design and verification activities.

The role emphasizes digital, analog, and power electronics, RF front ends, SDRs, and antenna systems, with collaboration across mechanical, software, payload, and systems teams to ensure mission success.

Qualifications

• Strong Electrical and RF engineering expertise.
• Experience leading a small team of RF and Electrical Engineers.
• Cross-functional collaboration with mechanical, software, payload, and systems teams.
• Experience with satellite hardware, PCB design, and RF front-end challenges.

Responsibilities

• Design digital, analog, and power electronics for satellite hardware and oversee schematic capture, PCB layout, RF chain design, and power subsystems.
• Lead PCB design and layout with RF considerations including impedance, grounding, shielding, power distribution, and signal integrity.
• Establish engineering best practices, design standards, and review processes for reliability and consistency across hardware designs.
• Facilitate root-cause analyses and corrective actions, driving data-driven problem solving for flight hardware.
• Manage task planning, delegation, and roadmapping to meet program milestones from concept to flight qualification.
• Collaborate with PCB Contract Manufacturers to ensure quality control and timely delivery of flight hardware.
• Design RF payload architectures and SDR systems for space-based missions.
• Develop test procedures and automation scripts to characterize SDR and RF front-end performance.
• Support spacecraft integration and testing, including EGSE, flatsats, and hardware checkouts.
• Perform first article hardware unit testing, including reception inspection, burn-in, thermal validation, and testing.

Skills

RF Engineering

Electrical Engineering

Team Leadership

PCB Design

Signal Integrity

RF Payloads

Job description

HawkEye 360 is seeking a Principal RF Electrical Engineer and Team Lead on the Space Team. The Space Team's mission is to design, build, and test small commercial satellites that provide revolutionary RF geospatial analytics.

You will lead electrical and RF design of our space platforms, with emphasis on digital, analog, and power electronics design as well as RF payloads including Software Defined Radios (SDRs), RF front ends, and antenna systems. You'll oversee PCB design from schematic capture through layout and manufacturing while also defining and executing performance tests to verify mission requirements. You will lead a small team of R F and Electrical Engineers , providing technical guidance and mentorship while remaining hands-on with design and test activities.

This role requires strong Electrical and RF Engineering expertise, excellent communication skills, and the ability to work cross-functionally with mechanical, software, payload, and systems engineering teams.

Your main responsibilities will be:

• Design digital, analog, and power electronics for satellite flight hardware while overseeing team execution of schematic capture, PCB layout, RF chain design, and power subsystem development to ensure technical accuracy and on-schedule delivery.
• Lead PCB design and layout activities with attention to RF design considerations including controlled impedance, grounding, shielding, power distribution, and signal integrity.
• Establish engineering best practices, design standards, and review processes to maintain high reliability and consistency across all hardware designs.
• Facilitate root-cause analyses and corrective action efforts, aligning engineering teams around data-driven problem solving for flight hardware anomalies.
• Manage task planning, delegation, and technical roadmapping to ensure the RF/EE team meets program milestones from concept through flight qualification.
• Work closely with PCB Contract Manufacturers (CMs) to ensure quality control and timely delivery of flight hardware.
• Design and develop RF payload architectures and Software Defined Radio systems for space-based RF collection missions.
• Develop test procedures and automation scripts to characterize SDR and RF front-end Performance.
• Support spacecraft integration and testing efforts, including the design of Electrical Ground Support Equipment (EGSE), flatsats for functional testing, and satellite flight hardware testing.
• Perform first article hardware unit testing, including reception inspection, burn-in testing, thermal validation, and hardware checkouts.

We offer a compensation package that includes a competitive base salary plus annual performance bonus and benefits. We consider many factors when determining salary offers, such as candidate's work experience, education, training & skills, as well as market and business considerations. We are also open to considering candidates with experience and qualifications at a different level than required in a job posting, which may affect the compensation package offered.

Salary Range

$170,000 - $200,000 USD

Company Overview:

HawkEye 360 is equipping defense, intelligence, and national security leaders with mission-critical signals intelligence to enable faster, better decision making. By detecting, geolocating, and characterizing radio frequency emissions worldwide, HawkEye 360 delivers trusted domain awareness and early warning indicators to the US Government and allied partners. Our space-based collection, proprietary signal processing, and AI-powered analytics transform knowledge of RF spectrum into a strategic advantage. Proven by operational mission success, HawkEye 360 is redefining how signals intelligence strengthens national and global security.

HawkEye 360 is committed to hiring and retaining a diverse workforce. We are proud to be an Equal Opportunity Employer, making decisions without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, marital status, national origin, age, veteran status, disability, or any other protected class.

Voluntary Self-Identification

For government reporting purposes, we ask candidates to respond to the below self-identification survey.Completion of the form is entirely voluntary. Whatever your decision, it will not be considered in the hiringprocess or thereafter. Any information that you do provide will be recorded and maintained in aconfidential file.

As set forth in HawkEye 360’s Equal Employment Opportunity policy,we do not discriminate on the basis of any protected group status under any applicable law.

If you believe you belong to any of the categories of protected veterans listed below, please indicate by making the appropriate selection.As a government contractor subject to the Vietnam Era Veterans Readjustment Assistance Act (VEVRAA), we request this information in order to measurethe effectiveness of the outreach and positive recruitment efforts we undertake pursuant to VEVRAA. Classification of protected categoriesis as follows:

A "disabled veteran" is one of the following: a veteran of the U.S. military, ground, naval or air service who is entitled to compensation (or who but for the receipt of military retired pay would be entitled to compensation) under laws administered by the Secretary of Veterans Affairs; or a person who was discharged or released from active duty because of a service-connected disability.

A "recently separated veteran" means any veteran during the three-year period beginning on the date of such veteran's discharge or release from active duty in the U.S. military, ground, naval, or air service.

An "active duty wartime or campaign badge veteran" means a veteran who served on active duty in the U.S. military, ground, naval or air service during a war, or in a campaign or expedition for which a campaign badge has been authorized under the laws administered by the Department of Defense.

An "Armed forces service medal veteran" means a veteran who, while serving on active duty in the U.S. military, ground, naval or air service, participated in a United States military operation for which an Armed Forces service medal was awarded pursuant to Executive Order 12985.