Senior RF Desense Engineer

About the role

Zipline is seeking a Senior RF Desense Engineer to lead the architecture, analysis, mitigation, validation, and long-term improvement of RF desense performance across our autonomous aircraft and ground infrastructure. The role involves owning receiver desense engineering from early system architecture through hardware integration, validation, manufacturing, certification, and field deployment. This includes working across wireless platforms supporting various radio technologies and ensuring receivers maintain robust performance despite increasingly dense RF and electronic environments.

Responsibilities

• Own RF desense architecture, analysis, mitigation, validation, and production support across Zipline aircraft, docks, droids, Zipping Points, and future autonomous logistics platforms.
• Develop receiver desense budgets and performance requirements for next-generation wireless platforms.
• Identify and mitigate receiver sensitivity degradation caused by onboard transmitters, switching power supplies, processors, high-speed digital interfaces, displays, motors, power electronics, and other electronic subsystems.
• Analyze conducted and radiated interference mechanisms including broadband noise coupling, harmonics, spurious emissions, blocking, intermodulation, passive intermodulation, and electromagnetic compatibility.
• Characterize RF coupling paths through PCBs, cables, antennas, enclosures, mechanical structures, power systems, and wiring harnesses.
• Develop practical mitigation strategies including shielding, filtering, grounding, PCB layout optimization, clock management, power supply noise reduction, frequency planning, and antenna isolation improvements.
• Define RF design guidelines that minimize desense risks early in product development.
• Define Zipline's end-to-end electromagnetic shielding architecture spanning RF ICs, front-end modules, PCB assemblies, connectors, cable harnesses, LRUs, subsystem enclosures, and complete products.
• Develop shielding strategies that minimize self-generated and externally coupled RF interference while balancing size, weight, thermal performance, manufacturability, serviceability, reliability, and cost.
• Specify shielding requirements for RF circuits, mixed-signal electronics, switching power supplies, processors, high-speed digital interfaces, motors, and power electronics to prevent receiver degradation.
• Design connector and cable interconnect shielding architectures including shield termination, grounding topology, common-mode current control, cable routing, connector selection, and bonding methods to minimize conducted and radiated emissions.
• Develop subsystem-level shielding strategies defining enclosure construction, gasket selection, aperture control, seam treatment, venting approaches, conductive coatings, and grounding interfaces to achieve predictable electromagnetic isolation.
• Lead product-level shielding architecture to ensure emissions from all subsystems remain below receiver susceptibility thresholds while supporting simultaneous operation of multiple transmitters and sensitive receivers.
• Develop shielding methodologies that enable reliable integration of LTE, 5G, GNSS, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, ADS-B, UAT, ISM radios, telemetry, command-and-control, V2V communications, and future wireless technologies operating concurrently.
• Drive shielding design decisions through simulation, laboratory characterization, near-field scanning, EMI/EMC testing, environmental testing, flight testing, and structured root-cause analysis.
• Establish shielding design standards, verification methodologies, acceptance criteria, production inspection processes, and long-term design guidelines across Zipline's hardware platforms.
• Partner with mechanical engineering to design lightweight, manufacturable shielding solutions that maintain performance over the full environmental and operational life of the product.
• Define shielding strategies that protect high-precision GNSS receivers from onboard interference sources, enabling robust positioning performance under simultaneous multi-radio operation and dynamic flight conditions.
• Perform RF system analysis including receiver sensitivity, cascaded noise figure, blocking performance, dynamic range, interference budgeting, and system margin analysis.
• Collaborate closely with RF front-end and antenna engineers to optimize signal chains, antenna placement, installed performance, and isolation.
• Support PCB layout reviews, grounding strategies, shielding implementation, stack-up definition, and design-for-manufacturing activities.
• Develop laboratory validation methods using spectrum analyzers, vector network analyzers, vector signal analyzers, signal generators, near-field probes, OTA chambers, EMI receivers, and conducted RF measurements.
• Plan and execute RF desense characterization, conducted and over-the-air testing, environmental qualification, production verification, and flight testing.
• Investigate RF performance issues using laboratory measurements, simulation, production data, and structured root-cause analysis.
• Support RF coexistence activities including multi-radio interference analysis, wireless integration, radio scheduling strategies, and system-level performance optimization.
• Support regulatory and carrier certification activities including FCC, CE, ISED, PTCRB, GCF, carrier acceptance, aviation certifications, and international wireless and EMC certifications.
• Work closely with suppliers and manufacturing partners to establish RF acceptance criteria, production test methods, calibration procedures, shielding validation processes, and quality controls.
• Mentor engineers and help establish RF desense methodologies, shielding architectures, debugging processes, validation standards, and long-term RF performance roadmaps.

Requirements

Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering or a related technical field. Typically 7 or more years of professional experience developing RF hardware or wireless communication systems for production products. Strong understanding of RF receiver architecture, cascaded receiver performance, sensitivity, noise figure, blocking, dynamic range, selectivity, and receiver optimization. Demonstrated experience investigating and resolving RF desense issues within complex wireless systems. Demonstrated experience developing shielding architectures from RF circuit level through complete products, including PCB shielding, connector shielding, cable shielding, enclosure design, subsystem isolation, LRU-level shielding, and product-level electromagnetic containment. Strong understanding of electromagnetic coupling mechanisms including conducted emissions, radiated emissions, harmonics, intermodulation, passive intermodulation, broadband digital noise, common-mode currents, grounding topology, shielding effectiveness, enclosure resonance, and practical mitigation techniques. Experience designing products that integrate multiple simultaneous wireless technologies including LTE, 5G, GNSS, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, ADS-B, UAT, ISM radios, or other wireless communication systems. Experience developing shielding strategies for platforms requiring simultaneous operation of high-power transmitters alongside high-sensitivity receivers, including precision GNSS systems. Experience balancing shielding effectiveness with mechanical design, thermal management, manufacturability, environmental robustness, serviceability, and long-term product reliability. Familiarity with multi-radio systems and the interaction between RF front ends, antennas, digital electronics, embedded software, power electronics, and mechanical structures. Experience taking RF hardware from concept through integration, verification, certification, and production. Hands-on experience with spectrum analyzers, vector network analyzers, vector signal analyzers, signal generators, EMI receivers, power meters, near-field probes, OTA measurement systems, and RF measurement equipment. Experience validating shielding effectiveness using near-field scanning, conducted and radiated emissions testing, chamber testing, susceptibility testing, and structured RF debugging techniques. Strong written and verbal communication skills with the ability to explain technical tradeoffs across multidisciplinary engineering teams. Ability to operate independently while driving technically complex RF investigations from concept through production.

Qualifications

Master's degree or PhD in Electrical Engineering or a related field. Experience with autonomous aircraft, robotics, aerospace, automotive, or other highly integrated embedded systems. Experience supporting RF coexistence validation for complex multi-radio platforms. Experience with cellular carrier certification, PTCRB, GCF, and international cellular deployments. Familiarity with RF simulation tools such as Keysight ADS, Cadence AWR, Ansys HFSS, CST Studio.