Senior Radar Engineer, Mars Orbiter Mission

Relativity; Long Beach (CA); On-site; USD 130,000 - 230,000; Full time

Job summary

Relativity Space seeks a technical lead for a wideband UHF radar sounder on a Mars orbiter mission, owning the instrument from design to spacecraft integration. You will lead the radar system, jointly design with science partners, and drive calibration, testing, and qualification.

You will work across RF, digital, power, and mechanical domains, coordinating with partners and providing technical leadership while ensuring the instrument meets mission objectives and science goals.

Qualifications

• 7+ years of experience in electrical hardware development (radar/SDR).
• Ability to develop and manage radar system performance budgets.
• Experience modeling radar returns and performance.
• Experience implementing SDR/RADAR transceivers.
• Field/flight/spaceflight testing experience with radar systems.
• Expertise in FPGA/GPU signal processing, PCB design, RF circuits.

Responsibilities

• Own the system design for radar electronics, signal processing, and antenna at vehicle level, including budgets, link budgets, and SNR analyses.
• Lead waveform studies and implement baseline algorithms with science partners.
• Lead hardware development and validation before flight.
• Define instrument calibration schemes for radar and radiometer modes.
• Coordinate RF, digital, power, mechanical, firmware/software across teams.
• Lead instrument qualification, spacecraft integration, and terrestrial testing; review post-flight data.
• Perform spectrum licensing and frequency coordination; assist on-orbit commissioning.

Skills

Radar systems

Software defined radio

FPGA processing

RF circuit design

Antenna design

Signal processing

PCB design

Tools

FPGA design tools

GPU processing

RF test equipment

PCB design tools

Job description

Relativity Space seeks a technical lead for a wideband UHF radar sounder on a Mars orbiter mission, owning the instrument from design to spacecraft integration. You will lead the radar system, jointly design with science partners, and drive calibration, testing, and qualification.

You will work across RF, digital, power, and mechanical domains, coordinating with partners and providing technical leadership while ensuring the instrument meets mission objectives and science goals.