Senior RF Electrical Engineer (Prism)

Northwood Space; Torrance (CA); On-site; USD 140,000 - 226,000; Full time

Job summary

Northwood Space is seeking a Senior RF Electrical Engineer to design and own RF hardware for Prism, a 2.4-meter parabolic antenna for high-throughput satellite links. You will guide RF chains from architecture through prototype, characterization, and production, collaborating with hardware, software, and test teams to deliver field-ready hardware.

The role requires designing across multiple bands, performing system-level trades, and building RF circuits (LNAs, filters, PA, converters) while

Qualifications

• BS degree in electrical engineering or related field.
• 5+ years of RF design experience across circuits, filters, or antennas.
• Experience taking RF hardware from design through bring-up, characterization, and debug in the lab.
• Comfort with RF test equipment including network analyzers, spectrum analyzers, signal generators, noise figure analyzers, and power meters.

Responsibilities

• Design RF electronics hardware for Prism and iterate on existing Prism hardware to improve reliability, performance, and manufacturability.
• Own RF line-up design for Prism's receive and transmit chains, balancing gain, noise figure, linearity, output power, and blocker/interference tolerance.
• Design and trade RF architectures that support Prism's multiple frequency bands, including band switching, filtering, and shared signal paths.
• Create electromagnetic simulation models of Prism hardware (amplifiers, filters, PCB layout) to design and evaluate performance.
• Build RF circuits for Prism (LNAs, filters, power amplifiers, frequency converters) and support circuitry (power, digital control), and characterize their performance.

Skills

RF design

LNA design

RF test equipment

EM simulation

Education

Bachelor's degree in electrical engineering

Tools

Network analyzers

Spectrum analyzers

Signal generators

Noise figure analyzers

Power meters

Job description

About Northwood:

Northwood is a modern space infrastructure company bringing the benefits of space to the masses through advanced communications technology. We are building a global network of phased array and parabolic ground stations that enable real-time, reliable communication for satellite missions such as national security, global connectivity, and disaster response. With a vertically integrated approach, Northwood designs, builds, and rapidly deploys scalable systems that power the next generation of space missions. If you like solving complex challenges and seeing your work deployed around the world with real impact, Northwood is the place to do it.

Role:

As a Senior RF Electrical Engineer, you will design and own RF hardware for Prism, Northwood's 2.4-meter parabolic antenna for high-throughput satellite links. You will work across Prism's multi-band RF chain (receive front ends, frequency conversion, filtering, and the transmit line-up that drives Prism's high power amplifiers), taking hardware from architecture through prototype, characterization, and production. You will make system-level RF performance trades and collaborate across hardware, software, and test teams to deliver hardware that performs in the field.

Responsibilities:

• Design RF electronics hardware for Prism, and iterate on existing Prism hardware to improve reliability, performance, and manufacturability
• Own RF line-up design for Prism's receive and transmit chains, balancing gain, noise figure, linearity, output power, and blocker/interference tolerance
• Design and trade RF architectures that support Prism's multiple frequency bands, including band switching, filtering, and shared signal paths
• Create electromagnetic simulation models of Prism hardware (amplifiers, filters, PCB layout) to design and evaluate performance
• Build RF circuits for Prism (LNAs, filters, power amplifiers, frequency converters) as well as support circuitry (power, digital control), and characterize their performance

Basic Qualifications:

• Bachelor's degree in electrical engineering or related engineering discipline
• 5+ years of RF design experience, across circuits, filters, or antennas
• Experience taking RF hardware from design through bring-up, characterization, and debug in the lab
• Comfort with RF test equipment, including network analyzers, spectrum analyzers, signal generators, noise figure analyzers, and power meters

Preferred Qualifications:

• RF line-up design, considering non-linearity, noise, output power, and blocker/jammer tolerance
• Power amplifier, LNA, and filter design
• Satellite ground terminal hardware across multiple frequency bands, such as LNBs, block upconverters/downconverters, or tracking receivers
• Frequency synthesis and LO design, including PLLs and phase noise optimization
• Filter, diplexer, and multiplexer design, including waveguide and planar implementations
• Waveguide component and transition design, including waveguide-to-microstrip transitions, OMTs, and feeds
• Theory and testing related to EVM, Noise Figure, power handling metrics (IIP2, IMD), impedance matching, amplifier stability, and cascaded network analysis
• Design and bring-up of point-of-load converters and common digital interfaces such as I2C/SPI

Additional Requirements:

This position requires successfully obtaining and maintaining a Top Secret Security Clearance as a condition of employment. While the clearance may not be immediately necessary upon hire, we encourage you to initiatethe application process promptly upon accepting this offer. Your ability to secure the necessary clearance is essential for fulfilling key responsibilities of the role. Should you be unable to obtain it, Northwood Space reserves the right to modify or terminate your employment to align with operational needs.

Compensation:

RF Hardware/Level 3: $140,000-$175,000

RF Hardware/Level 4: $152,000-$190,000

RF Hardware/Level 5: $180,000-$226,000

Additional Information:

To conform to U.S. Government space technology export regulations, including the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) you must be a U.S. citizen, lawful permanent resident of the U.S., protected individual as defined by 8 U.S.C. 1324b(a)(3), or eligible to obtain the required authorizations from the U.S. Department of State.

Northwood Space is an Equal Opportunity Employer; employment with Northwood Space is governed on the basis of merit, competence and qualifications and will not be influenced in any manner by race, color, religion, gender, national origin/ethnicity, veteran status, disability status, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, mental or physical disability or any other legally protected status.

If you need a reasonable accommodation as part of your application for employment or interviews with us, please let us know at [e-mail]