Senior RF/DSP Engineer

About the role

The Senior RF/DSP Engineer will investigate unfamiliar drone command, control, and telemetry links and turn incomplete RF evidence into reliable production capabilities. This is an individual-contributor engineering role.

Responsibilities

• Analyze wideband complex-IQ recordings from known and unfamiliar RF systems.
• :Characterize signal bandwidth, timing, modulation, synchronization, channel access, frequency-hopping behavior, framing, coding, and other observable properties.
• Design controlled experiments that isolate transmitter behavior and reveal waveform or protocol structure.
• Develop algorithms for burst detection, synchronization, demodulation, signal characterization, protocol recovery, classification, and tracking.
• Distinguish target signals from noise, interference, receiver artifacts, and benign emitters in dense RF environments.
• Implement and optimize production DSP capabilities in modern C++.
• Use MATLAB, Python, or similar tools for exploration, simulation, visualization, and algorithm prototyping.
• Convert exploratory analysis into maintainable, observable, and computationally bounded production components, following the team's established architecture and methodology.
• Build synthetic waveforms, replay fixtures, and automated tests using the team's frameworks.
• Validate algorithms using synthetic, conducted, over-the-air, and field-recorded data.
• Measure detection probability, false-alarm rate, packet error rate, acquisition behavior, latency, and computational performance.
• Diagnose failures involving CFO, sample-clock error, timing recovery, multipath, clipping, IQ imbalance, spectral inversion, dropped samples, and interference.
• Document observations, assumptions, confidence levels, known limitations, and recommended next experiments.
• Participate in technical reviews and incorporate feedback from senior signal-processing staff.

Requirements

• BS or higher in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Applied Physics, or a related technical field.
• Substantial professional experience developing RF, communications, radar, electronic-warfare, or related signal-processing systems.
• Strong DSP and digital-communications fundamentals, including several of the following: Sampling and aliasing; Digital down conversion; FIR/IIR and multirate filtering; FFT and time-frequency analysis; Matched filtering; Detection and estimation; Carrier, phase, symbol-timing, and frame synchronization; Modulation and demodulation; Channel coding and error detection.
• Demonstrated ability to investigate an unfamiliar signal or system using measurements and controlled experiments.
• Experience analyzing real complex-IQ data—not only simulations or high-level system models.
• Hands-on experience implementing, testing, and debugging DSP algorithms.
• Proficiency writing production-quality C++ in a Linux environment.
• Experience creating automated tests and replaying recorded data through algorithm pipelines.
• Experience with collaborative source control and code review using Git or an equivalent system.

Qualifications

• US Citizenship is required.

Preferred Qualifications

• Exposure to reverse-engineering undocumented or partially documented wireless waveforms and protocols.
• Experience with Software Defined Radios, RF laboratory equipment, and conducted or over-the-air testing.
• Experience with frequency-hopping, spread-spectrum, OFDM, cellular, telemetry, command-and-control, or other modern communication systems.
• Experience building detectors that operate in congested RF environments with measurable false-alarm requirements.
• Experience with FPGA-based DSP, fixed-point implementation, hardware/software partitioning, or high-rate sample transport.
• Experience optimizing real-time C++ DSP pipelines using profiling, SIMD, threading, bounded queues, and reusable buffers.
• Experience generating synthetic waveforms and injecting controlled impairments such as noise, CFO, clock offset, fading, and interference.
• Familiarity with direction finding, antenna arrays, phased-array processing, or emitter geolocation.
• Familiarity with statistical classification or machine learning applied to RF data.
• Experience with Counter-UAS, electronic warfare, SIGINT, radar, or related mission systems.

Pay

The salary range for this role is $128,000 - $195,250.

Schedule

The company offers a 9/80 work schedule and a paid holiday shutdown.

Benefits

AV offers an excellent benefits package including medical, dental, vision, 401K with company matching, and a paid holiday shutdown. For more information about our company benefit offerings please visit: http://www.avinc.com/myavbenefits.