Staff RF Design Engineer

Array Labs; Redwood City (CA); On-site; USD 170,000 - 220,000; Full time

Job summary

A pioneering radar technology firm is seeking a Staff RF Design Engineer to design and validate RF electronics for advanced radar sensors. You will lead the development of RF electronic subsystems and collaborate with cross-functional teams on state-of-the-art hardware. The role requires a B.S. in Electrical Engineering and 4-7 years of experience in electronics design, with competitive salary ranging from $170,000 to $220,000 annually.

Qualifications

• 4-7 years of relevant experience in electronics design.
• Hands-on experience designing high-performance RF hardware.
• Experience with schematic capture and design using CAD tools.

Responsibilities

• Develop advanced RF electronic subsystems from architecture to manufacturing.
• Select components and design complex RF assemblies including switching networks.
• Lead prototyping, hardware bring-up, and characterization for RF electronics.

Skills

Teamwork

Communication skills

Self-motivation

Rapid learning

Ability to work under pressure

Education

B.S. in Electrical Engineering or related field

Master’s degree or Ph.D. in related field

Tools

Altium Designer

ADS

Microwave Office

HFSS

Job description

Array Labs builds advanced radar systems to help humanity understand and respond to changes across the physical world.

We’re launching a coordinated fleet of radar satellites to create a high-resolution 3D map of the Earth – updated in real time – enabling faster, smarter decision‑making for government and commercial organizations supporting disaster response, infrastructure resilience, and mission‑critical geopolitical intelligence.

We design and build our satellites end‑to‑end, producing the world’s most advanced earth observation satellites. Our fleet will deliver unprecedented levels of accuracy, coverage, and responsiveness to power critical insights precisely where they’re needed most.

About the Job

As a Staff RF Design Engineer, you will design and validate the RF electronics that enable Array’s radar sensors. Your work will include low‑noise receive chains, high‑power transmit chains, RF switching and protection, bias and control circuitry, and integration of transceiver and timing‑critical RF subsystems.

You will take hardware from schematic design through prototyping, bring‑up, characterization, and qualification, working closely with antenna, mixed‑signal, mechanical, and systems engineers. The RF hardware you develop will directly impact signal quality, sensitivity, output power, stability, and overall on‑orbit performance.

Responsibilities

• Develop advanced RF electronic subsystems, from architecture to manufacturing
• Work closely with RF systems, antenna, mixed‑signal, mechanical, firmware, and test engineers to design and validate state‑of‑the‑art radar sensor hardware
• Own RF subsystem definition and design trade studies, balancing noise figure, linearity, output power, stability, spurious performance, and power consumption
• Select components, capture schematics, and design complex RF assemblies including receive and transmit chains, switching networks, filtering, and protection circuitry
• Lead prototyping, hardware bring‑up, debug, characterization, and test campaigns for RF electronics
• Rapidly iterate on and improve RF designs based on laboratory and environmental testing
• Provide technical leadership through design reviews, risk reduction planning, and mentorship of other engineers

Basic Qualifications

• B.S. in Electrical Engineering, or a related field with 4-7 years of relevant experience
• Experience in electronics design, bring‑up, and test
• Excellent teamwork and communication skills
• Learns new concepts rapidly, completely, and in a self‑directed manner
• High levels of self‑motivation and personal accountability
• Ability to work in a fast‑paced environment under significant time constraints

Preferred Skills and Experience

• Master’s degree or Ph.D. in electrical engineering, applied physics, or a related field
• Strong background in electromagnetic theory and RF fundamentals such as S‑parameters, transmission lines, stability analysis, and impedance matching
• Hands‑on experience designing high‑performance RF hardware including LNAs, PAs/driver chains, mixers, switches, filters, couplers, and protection circuitry
• Experience with frequency synthesis and timing‑critical RF subsystems including PLLs, VCOs, references, and low‑jitter clock distribution
• Experience with RF modeling, simulation, and analysis tools such as ADS, Microwave Office, and/or HFSS
• Experience with schematic capture and design using CAD tools such as Altium Designer (preferred); experience with Allegro and/or OrCAD is a plus
• Hands‑on experience with RF test and characterization equipment such as VNAs, spectrum analyzers, signal generators, power meters, and phase noise measurement
• Experience with EMC requirements and EMI mitigation techniques in mixed‑signal and RF systems
• Experience taking RF hardware from prototype through qualification and environmental testing, including working with manufacturing partners and test teams

$170,000 - $220,000 a year

ITAR Requirements

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.

Equal Opportunity Employer

Array Labs is an Equal Opportunity Employer. Employment decisions are made on the basis of merit, competence, and job qualifications and will not be influenced in any manner by gender, color, race, ethnicity, national origin, sexual orientation, religion, age, gender identity, veteran status, disability status, marital status, mental or physical disability or any other legally protected status.

Interview Process

We will conduct interviews via Google Meet; the typical process takes around 2-4 weeks to complete from start to finish.

Hiring and Compensation Strategy

Our hiring and compensation strategy is simple:

• find uncommonly good people
• pay them uncommonly well

You can anticipate competitive pay, with high flexibility between salary and equity‑based compensation.

Why Join Array Labs?

Array Labs is launching a constellation of satellites to create the first high‑resolution, real‑time, three‑dimensional model of Earth. Our next‑generation satellite technology will offer image quality 60x greater than traditional techniques, profoundly expanding humanity’s ability to understand and respond to events on a global scale.

In forging an affordable, accessible, accurate representation of Earth, our work has the potential to transform the face of dozens of fields, including autonomy, telecommunications, disaster relief, gaming, climate science, defense and construction.