Senior RF Test Engineer - Production & Yield Leader

Technology Service Corporation Defense Services; Huntsville (AL); On-site; USD 120,000 - 170,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

ESOP participation

401k plan

Flexible work schedules

Tuition reimbursement

Co-sponsored health plan

Paid leave

Job summary

Technology Service Corporation Defense Services in Huntsville, AL seeks a Senior RF Manufacturing Test Engineer to lead production test for defense RF systems, drive yield improvements, and ensure robust, repeatable calibration and test coverage across builds.

The role requires hands-on leadership on the manufacturing floor, deep RF expertise, and the ability to troubleshoot intermittent failures and environmental sensitivities in a production setting.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering or related field with 8+ years of hands-on RF/microwave production experience (Master's preferred).
• Demonstrated expertise troubleshooting complex RF systems in production environments, not just lab development.
• Deep understanding of RF system performance including gain/loss/dynamic range, noise figure and sensitivity, linearity and compression, phase noise and stability, and interference mechanisms.
• Strong experience debugging RF issues tied to mechanical layout, grounding, shielding, and assembly variation.
• Extensive hands-on experience with RF test equipment: spectrum analyzers, vector network analyzers (VNA s), signal generators, power meters/sensors.
• Experience developing automated RF test systems using Python, LabVIEW, TestStand, or similar frameworks.
• Experience with production calibration, alignment, and tuning of RF systems.
• Strong background in statistical process control (SPC), yield analysis, and failure investigation.
• Proven ability to diagnose issues spanning RF, digital, embedded, and electromechanical domains.
• Experience transitioning products from development to production with emphasis on test readiness, documentation completeness, and process repeatability.
• Strong technical communication skills; able to lead technical reviews, failure investigations, and customer briefings.
• U.S. citizenship required.

Responsibilities

• Serves as the technical authority for production RF performance, test strategy, and yield optimization across defense RF systems including seekers, proximity sensors, height-of-burst sensors, antennas, and RF subsystems.
• Owns resolution of the most complex production issues, including intermittent failures, environmental sensitivities, calibration drift, and unit-to-unit performance variation.
• Leads deep-dive root cause investigations across full RF signal chains, including RF front-end, analog, mixed-signal, and embedded interfaces.
• Diagnoses and resolves issues related to noise, spurious signals, coupling, shielding, grounding, and system-level interactions.
• Drives transition of RF hardware from development into production, ensuring production-representative test coverage, calibration robustness, and repeatability across builds.
• Develops and deploys advanced RF production test solutions, including automated test systems, alignment/calibration routines, and system-level validation methods.
• Optimizes production test flows to balance test coverage, throughput, and false failure reduction, while maintaining mission-critical performance requirements.
• Drives reduction of test escapes and false failures through improved test coverage, limits, and methodologies.
• Applies statistical analysis to production data to identify trends in yield loss, drift, and performance variation across lots, builds, and environments.
• Partners with Design Engineering to close gaps in design for test (DFT), design for manufacturability (DFM), and design for calibration (DFC).
• Leads implementation of corrective and preventive actions (CAPA) for systemic production issues.
• Interfaces with Program Management, Quality, Supply Chain, and customers to communicate technical risk, readiness, and production performance.
• Provides hands-on technical leadership on the manufacturing floor and at the bench, supporting test stations, troubleshooting efforts, and engineering builds.
• Mentors engineers and technicians in RF debugging, measurement techniques, and production best practices.
• Expected to independently diagnose issues where RF performance deviates from design intent with no clear failure mode or repeatability.
• Other duties as assigned.

Skills

RF troubleshooting

Production debugging

Cross-functional communication

Statistical analysis

Problem solving

Education

Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering

8+ years RF/microwave production experience

Master's preferred

Tools

Spectrum analyzers

Vector Network Analyzers (VNA)

Signal generators

Power meters

TestStand

Python

LabVIEW

Job description

Technology Service Corporation Defense Services in Huntsville, AL seeks a Senior RF Manufacturing Test Engineer to lead production test for defense RF systems, drive yield improvements, and ensure robust, repeatable calibration and test coverage across builds.

The role requires hands-on leadership on the manufacturing floor, deep RF expertise, and the ability to troubleshoot intermittent failures and environmental sensitivities in a production setting.