RF Hardware Engineer - Wideband Receivers

Job Description Job Description Senior RF Hardware Engineer, Wideband Receivers - Design RF Boards from the Component Level Up Tampa, FL | On-site Opportunity Summary Join an early-stage defense technology company building RF sensing and electronic warfare systems for demanding operational environments. Every receive, compute, and transmit board in the company's systems is designed in-house from zero. The team intentionally avoids building RF systems by connecting packaged front ends and amplifier modules to an SDR; it designs discrete, component-level hardware instead, and that is a core differentiator. You will lead RF hardware for a new wideband passive sensing product, starting from the company's existing receive and transmit paths and adapting them for a new use case, owning both the RF signal chain and the RF power and power delivery design. You will be part of a newly formed team of four to five engineers chartered to deliver a V0 of a new distributed RF sensing product in roughly 90 days. The team starts from a short list of functional goals rather than a fixed requirements document, has a dedicated development budget, and decides for itself how to get there. Expect weekly development spins, with new PCB revisions ordered at the end of most weeks. Iterations are engineer-driven: if you see a way to make your design better, you make the call and the respin gets built. About Us We are a venture-backed defense technology startup founded by former Army officers with frontline electronic warfare and cyber experience. The company builds spectrum-control systems that detect, disrupt, mask, and manage wireless signals, and designs its receive, compute, and transmit boards, firmware, and software in-house down to the component level. Systems are already fielded with Army and special operations users, defense programs are advancing toward production, and a new commercial sensing product line is entering large-scale deployment. The team of roughly 15 is growing quickly ahead of its next funding round. Job Duties Lead RF hardware design for a new wideband sensing product, adapting existing in-house receive and transmit paths to new requirementsDesign RF front ends covering roughly 300 MHz to 6 GHz, including preselection, filtering, LNAs, switches, gain stages, and mixersOwn board-level power architecture and power delivery networks for RF, mixed-signal, and converter circuitryCapture schematics and lay out boards in Altium down to the component level, with close attention to grounding, isolation, impedance, and couplingAnalyze and optimize noise figure, linearity, compression, spurious response, and gain distribution in congested spectrumDesign gain strategies that preserve weak-signal detection next to strong nearby emittersInterface receiver hardware with Analog Devices transceivers, high-speed ADCs, FPGA platforms, and compute boardsBring up and characterize new boards in the lab, then drive fixes into the next weekly spinSupport multichannel receive paths and calibration for direction finding and geolocationSupport DFM, production test development, and EMI/EMC troubleshooting as hardware moves toward pilot productionWork closely with FPGA, geolocation, firmware, mechanical, and systems engineers during integration Qualifications BS in Electrical Engineering or a related discipline, or equivalent practical experience5+ years of hands-on RF or microwave hardware designDemonstrated component-level RF board design using discrete LNAs, filters, switches, mixers, and amplifiers, not primarily integrating packaged RF modulesHands-on schematic capture and PCB layout in Altium DesignerExperience with both the RF signal chain and RF power, including power delivery network designDesigned at least one RF receiver or transceiver board through working, tested hardwareStrong grasp of noise figure, dynamic range, IP3, compression, spurious response, and blocker performanceStrong lab skills with VNAs, spectrum analyzers, signal generators, and oscilloscopesAble to move a board from schematic to working hardware quickly with limited spinsU.S. citizenship required, with the ability to obtain and maintain a security clearanceComfortable turning broad goals into your own plan and delivering on weekly iteration cycles with minimal top-down directionAble to work on-site in Tampa, FL Preferred Experience Multichannel or phase-coherent receiver design and channel-to-channel calibrationExperience with SDR front ends, direct-sampling ADCs, or RFSoC-based systemsCellular, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, or GNSS RF experienceRF simulation in Keysight ADS, AWR Microwave Office, or Ansys HFSSEMI/EMC design and pre-compliance testingBackground in consumer wireless, telecom, medical devices, test and measurement, or other high-performance RF industries; defense experience is not required Why Join Us Lead RF design for a new product line on a small team where your architecture decisions stickDesign custom receiver and power electronics at the component level rather than integrating packaged modulesDedicated development budget, so the team is not forced to cut corners to hit the scheduleWeekly build, test, and iterate cycles where engineers decide when a design needs another spinOptional travel to field exercises, new equipment training, and customer demonstrations for those who want it; no one is required to travelHealth, dental, and vision coverage with employer-subsidized premiums401(k) with company match, available from day oneUnlimited PTO with no accrual periodStreamlined hiring process: one recruiter conversation and one virtual technical interview with the team you would joinJoin at an early stage with significant ownership and long-term growth as the company scales Compensation Details $120,000 - $150,000