RF Design Engineer

EVONA; Seattle (WA); On-site; USD 140,000 - 180,000; Full time

Job summary

EVONA is seeking a Principal RF/Microwave Engineer to own flight-ready RF hardware for spaceborne radar payloads. You will design, simulate, and test RF transmit/receive chains, from architecture through calibration and production readiness, in a bench-heavy, hands-on role.

The position focuses on RF hardware, with emphasis on high-power amplification, phase noise, and coherence, in a tight, mission-focused team. On-site in Seattle with security clearance considerations.

Qualifications

• Expert RF/microwave design experience across transmit and/or receive chains.
• Experience with RF budgets, gain/noise analysis, linearity, and coherent systems.
• Background in space-qualified hardware and radar payloads is highly desirable.

Responsibilities

• Own RF architecture and performance budgets for transmit/receive chains.
• Design, verify, and validate RF hardware from requirements to bring-up.
• Mitigate RF, thermal, EMI/EMC, and integration risks across disciplines.

Skills

RF/microwave design

RF budgets

gain & noise analysis

linearity

dynamic range

phase noise

coherence

high-power amplification

filtering

matching networks

microwave PCB design

RF simulation

lab characterization

calibration

space-qualified hardware

phased arrays

radar payloads

Job description

Principal RF/Microwave Engineer - Spaceborne Radar Payloads

About The Opportunity

An early-stage space company is building advanced electronically-steerable radar payloads for Low Earth Orbit, and needs a principal-level RF/microwave engineer to own one of the highest-leverage parts of the architecture: the flight-ready, phase-coherent RF hardware that determines the payload's sensitivity, power, waveform fidelity, and overall mission performance.

This is a deeply hands-on principal role, not a systems-only or simulation-only seat. You'll own RF hardware end-to-end, from architecture and budgets through circuit and PCB design, simulation, lab characterisation, integration, qualification, calibration, and production readiness.

The mission context

The company's radar technology is based on mature phased-array heritage already in full-rate production for terrestrial and airborne applications, now being transitioned to flight-ready space hardware. The RF payload is central to that, and this role directly influences system sensitivity, RF power, efficiency, coherence, and mission performance. You'd be shaping next-generation spaceborne ISR, SAR, and MTI capabilities.

The two profiles

The team is growing, and there's appetite for more than one senior RF engineer. The work splits across two chains:

A transmit focus, centred on high-power amplification (GaN SSPA and drain-switching approaches), peak RF power, PAE, AM/PM fidelity, bandwidth, and the thermal and mechanical complexity that comes with high-power transmit. This is the rarer, more senior profile and the current priority.

A receive focus, centred on sensitivity, dynamic range, channel matching, gain and noise budgets, and calibration stability.

Strong candidates often bring depth in one and working knowledge of the other. If your centre of gravity is high-power transmit, we especially want to hear from you.

What You'll Own

Own the RF architecture and performance budgets. Design and verify RF transmit and/or receive chains spanning digital interfaces, RF signal conditioning, amplification, filtering, and calibration. Retire RF, thermal, power, EMI/EMC, and integration risks. Collaborate across antenna, digital, power, and spacecraft disciplines. Transition qualified hardware into repeatable production.

A typical week

Roughly 60% design, simulation, and lab work, 20% integration and support, and 20% in meetings. This is a bench-heavy role by design.

What You'll Bring

Expert RF/microwave design experience across transmit and/or receive chains: RF budgets, gain and noise analysis, linearity, dynamic range, phase noise, coherence, high-power amplification, filtering, matching networks, microwave PCB design, RF simulation, lab characterisation, and calibration. Experience developing space-qualified hardware, and ideally exposure to phased arrays, radar payloads, or aerospace RF systems.

The thing that matters most: you've personally architected and delivered complex RF/microwave hardware from requirements through bring-up, characterisation, integration, and qualification, and owned it end-to-end. Engineers who've played across disciplines, tried things, hit problems, and iterated their way through are exactly the profile. Deep but narrow experience, owning one fixed slice of a chain for years without that broader ownership, is not what this role needs.

You're hands-on, rigorous, curious, and high-ownership, with strong first-principles judgement, disciplined lab habits, comfort with ambiguity, and the ability to mentor while remaining a strong individual contributor.

Practical Requirements

This is an on-site role in the Seattle area. Given the mission set, US citizenship and the ability to meet security clearance requirements are required.

The honest preview

The upside is exceptional ownership of advanced radar hardware, genuinely hard RF problems, rapid design-test cycles, and direct impact on flight hardware and mission performance. The hard parts are aggressive schedules, evolving requirements, tightly coupled multidisciplinary interfaces, space-qualification constraints, and the expectation to solve problems hands-on at the bench. It suits a builder who wants deep ownership, not a specialist looking to run one narrow slice.