Senior SATCOM Architect for DoD Defense & Space

KBR Careers; San Diego (CA); On-site; USD 140,000 - 155,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical Insurance

401K plan with company match

Career development opportunities

Job summary

KBR's National Security Solutions team seeks a Senior SATCOM Systems Engineer in San Diego to lead architecture, analysis, integration and technical oversight of advanced satellite communications systems, spanning RF, IF, baseband and networking. You will optimize modem and terminal architectures for military and commercial SATCOM with focus on physical layer performance and waveform implementation.

With 8+ years in communications system development and DoD experience, you will translate RF

Qualifications

• BS in Electrical Engineering, Physics, Applied Mathematics, or related field.
• 8+ years of progressively responsible experience in communications system development.
• Hands-on experience supporting modem, waveform, or RF subsystem design or integration.
• Experience supporting integration and system-level testing.
• Experience working in DoD or defense communications programs.
• Strong RF engineering principles including non-linear effects, phase noise, filtering, and interference analysis.
• Deep understanding of digital communications theory including modulation, coding, synchronization, and detection.
• Active DoD SECRET clearance.

Responsibilities

• Analyze and define modem and RF subsystem architectures for SATCOM systems.
• Evaluate modulation and coding schemes (QPSK, 8PSK, APSK variants, LDPC, Turbo) under operational link conditions.
• Assess and support implementation of multiple access techniques.
• Develop and review link budgets, spectral efficiency analysis, and interference mitigation strategies.
• Support SoC/FPGA-based modem implementations and hardware/software partitioning decisions.
• Define system and interface requirements across RF, IF, baseband, and Layer 2 interfaces.
• Support integration and test of modem and terminal subsystems in laboratory and field environments.
• Identify technical risks and performance trades across waveform, RF, and network layers.
• Serve as SME for SATCOM systems and technologies.
• Mentor junior engineers and support technical development of project teams.
• Lead technical reviews including SRR, PDR, CDR, TRR, and customer readiness reviews.
• Interface directly with customers, government stakeholders, vendors, and subcontractors.

Skills

RF engineering

Digital communications

Modem development

System integration

Mentoring

Customer interfacing

Education

Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering

Master of Science in Electrical Engineering (Communications/RF/Signal Processing)

Tools

MATLAB

HDL (Verilog/VHDL)

Job description

KBR's National Security Solutions team seeks a Senior SATCOM Systems Engineer in San Diego to lead architecture, analysis, integration and technical oversight of advanced satellite communications systems, spanning RF, IF, baseband and networking. You will optimize modem and terminal architectures for military and commercial SATCOM with focus on physical layer performance and waveform implementation.

With 8+ years in communications system development and DoD experience, you will translate RF