Senior RF Engineer – Ka-Band HPA Design

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

Job summary

Northwood Space in Los Angeles is seeking a Senior Electrical Engineer (RF) to own Ka-band high power amplifier design for Prism. You will take amplifiers from architecture through prototype, characterization, and production, collaborating with antenna, mechanical, thermal, and test teams.

The role requires hands-on experience with microwave/millimeter-wave designs, RF simulation tools, and lab bring-up, plus a track record delivering reliable high-power RF hardware.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering or a related discipline.
• 5+ years of RF hardware design experience.
• Hands-on experience designing and building power amplifiers at microwave or millimeter-wave frequencies (Ku-band or higher).
• Experience taking RF hardware from design through bring-up, characterization, and debug in the lab.
• Proficiency with RF and EM simulation tools (such as Keysight ADS, Cadence AWR, Ansys HFSS, or CST).
• Comfort with RF test equipment, including network analyzers, spectrum analyzers, signal generators, and power meters.

Responsibilities

• Design Ka-band high power amplifiers for Prism, from line-up and architecture through schematic, layout, and hardware bring-up
• Develop power combining approaches that scale output power while protecting efficiency, linearity, and reliability
• Build electromagnetic and circuit simulation models (amplifier stages, matching networks, combiners, transitions) to design and evaluate performance before hardware
• Design supporting circuitry, including bias and sequencing, power conditioning, protection, monitoring, and digital control interfaces
• Own thermal and packaging considerations for high-dissipation RF hardware in partnership with mechanical and thermal engineers
• Characterize amplifier performance (output power, compression, PAE, linearity, spurious, stability) and troubleshoot integrated transmit chain performance
• Drive designs through reliability testing and into production, including test definition and manufacturing support
• Support integration and field troubleshooting of deployed Prism units

Skills

RF hardware design

Power amplifier design

Microwave/mm-wave design

Lab bring-up & debug

RF simulation tools

RF test equipment

Education

Bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering

Master’s degree or PhD in electrical engineering (RF/microwave)

Tools

Keysight ADS

Cadence AWR

Ansys HFSS

CST

Job description

Northwood Space in Los Angeles is seeking a Senior Electrical Engineer (RF) to own Ka-band high power amplifier design for Prism. You will take amplifiers from architecture through prototype, characterization, and production, collaborating with antenna, mechanical, thermal, and test teams.

The role requires hands-on experience with microwave/millimeter-wave designs, RF simulation tools, and lab bring-up, plus a track record delivering reliable high-power RF hardware.