Radar Systems Engineer - RF Integration and Test

CHAOS Industries; El Segundo (CA); On-site; USD 110,000 - 220,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health benefits (medical, dental, vision) 100% paid

401(k) with 50% company match

Free daily lunch

Unlimited PTO

Casual dress code

Job summary

CHAOS Industries located in El Segundo, California is looking for a Radar Systems Engineer to lead RF integration, debug, and characterization for radar hardware and test environments. This role involves ensuring reliable RF measurements and rapid issue isolation.

The ideal candidate will possess a Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering or related fields, alongside 5+ years of relevant experience in RF test and validation. The position offers competitive benefits including health insurance and stock options.

Qualifications

• 5+ years of experience in RF test, integration, and validation.
• Strong hands-on experience with RF test equipment.
• Ability to link component-level measurements to system-level performance.

Responsibilities

• Lead RF debug, characterization, and acceptance for radar hardware.
• Isolate subtle RF issues and define test setups for measurements.
• Collaborate with engineers to root-cause failures across boundaries.

Skills

RF test equipment

RF fundamentals

Documentation

Communication skills

Attention to detail

Education

Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering, Physics, Applied Physics, or related field

Tools

Python

MATLAB

LabVIEW

Job description

Radar Systems Engineer – RF Integration and Test Engineer

Role Overview: Own RF‑centric integration, debug, characterization, and validation for radar hardware, subsystems, and test environments. Act as the Integration and Test team’s lead RF engineer across lab, production, chamber, and field environments, ensuring reliable RF chain measurements and rapid root‑cause isolation.

Responsibilities

• Lead RF debug, characterization, and acceptance for radar hardware—including transmit and receive chains, antennas, cables, adapters, switches, filters, LNAs, HPAs, SDRs, and frequency conversion stages—and qualify new components for integration.
• Diagnose RF failures by selecting and executing the appropriate measurements (S‑parameters, VSWR, noise figure, phase noise, IP3/P1dB, gain/compression, group delay, harmonics/spurs, isolation, time‑domain) and reconcile component‑level results with system‑level performance.
• Choose the right instrument for each failure mode (VNAs, spectrum analyzers, signal generators, phase noise analyzers, power meters, oscilloscopes, noise figure analyzers, and supporting calibration standards).
• Isolate subtle RF issues such as insertion‑loss drift, intermittent behavior, phase instability, spurious content, compression effects, LO leakage, and timing/frequency drift.
• Define, configure, and calibrate RF test setups so measurements are repeatable and representative of operating conditions.
• Determine causes of observed failures—component defect, cable/connector/interface degradation, calibration error, fixture/setup limitation, environmental effect, or system interaction—and link results back to radar‑level performance impacts.
• Collaborate with systems, hardware, software, firmware, and integration engineers to root‑cause failures spanning RF, digital, timing, and test‑setup boundaries.
• Create RF test procedures, acceptance criteria, troubleshooting guides, and characterization reports for technicians and engineers.
• Plan and execute phased array testing in anechoic chambers, covering EIRP, beam patterns, sidelobe levels, beam‑steering accuracy, element‑level calibration, and array calibration across the operating band.
• Develop automated or semi‑automated RF data collection, analysis, and reporting tools.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering, Physics, Applied Physics, or related field; or equivalent hands‑on RF test experience.
• 5+ years of experience in RF test, integration, validation, radar systems, wireless systems, aerospace/defense systems, or a similar high‑performance RF environment.
• Strong hands‑on experience with RF test equipment to debug hardware and characterize components and subsystems.
• Deep understanding of RF fundamentals (scattering parameters, impedance matching, gain, noise figure, linearity, compression, isolation, phase stability, frequency‑domain behavior).
• Experience designing and executing RF test plans and interpreting ambiguous measurement results.
• Ability to link component‑level measurements to system‑level performance degradation.
• Excellent documentation and communication skills; ability to explain RF issues to cross‑functional teams.
• High attention to detail and disciplined lab/test practices.

Preferred Requirements

• Experience with radar, phased array, EW, SATCOM, or other advanced RF/microwave platforms.
• Hands‑on experience with anechoic chamber testing of phased arrays or antennas, including EIRP, near‑field/far‑field pattern measurement, beam‑steering verification, and array calibration techniques.
• Experience diagnosing radar calibration failures or phase‑sensitive RF performance issues.
• Familiarity with phase‑noise measurement methods, equipment selection, and result interpretation.
• Experience characterizing high‑power amplifiers, low‑noise amplifiers, frequency converters, SDRs, antennas, cables, adapters, and passive RF networks.
• Experience with high‑frequency test setups where cable behavior, connector condition, and calibration technique affect results.
• Experience creating custom RF test fixtures, calibration approaches, or troubleshooting methods for non‑standard hardware.
• Familiarity with automation or analysis tools such as Python, MATLAB, LabVIEW, or instrument‑control frameworks.
• Experience working in lab and field environments where environmental conditions, handling, and installation quality impact RF performance.
• Experience improving setup quality, measurement repeatability, and fault isolation speed with technicians.

Benefits

• Health benefits—medical, dental, and vision—100% paid by the company.
• 401(k) with 50% company match up to 6% of pay; FSA, HSA, life insurance, and more.
• Free daily lunch, “No meeting Fridays,” unlimited PTO, casual dress code.
• Competitive base salary, generous pre‑IPO stock option grants, relocation assistance, and upcoming annual bonuses.
• Team of 250 employees across five global offices.

Salary Range: $110,000 – $220,000

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