Senior RF Engineer

About the role

Icarus is seeking a skilled RF engineer to join our team. The ideal candidate will have 2+ years of experience designing and deploying RF systems for aerospace, defense, UAVs, or similar demanding environments. They should possess strong fundamentals in RF theory, electromagnetics, and communications systems, along with hands-on experience with RF test equipment and debugging RF systems in the field.

Responsibilities

• Design, build, and fly RF and communications systems for long-endurance stratospheric aircraft
• Own RF subsystems end to end: architecture, link budgets, component selection, integration, test, and flight validation
• Design and integrate radios, antennas, RF front ends, and data links for LOS and BLOS operation
• Drive RF performance through analysis, simulation, bench testing, and flight data
• Lead EMI/EMC mitigation across avionics, power, and payload systems
• Work closely with avionics, GNC, electrical, mechanical, and software teams to deliver robust flight communications
• Support integration, production bring-up, and flight operations in the desert

Requirements

Must thrive under pressure, learn fast, troubleshoot in the field, and push hardware to its limits. Must be comfortable moving fast, owning outcomes, and operating with minimal supervision.

Qualifications

• Strong fundamentals in RF theory, electromagnetics, and communications systems
• Experience with link budgets, antenna design or selection, RF propagation, and system-level trade studies
• Hands-on experience with RF test equipment (spectrum analyzers, VNAs, signal generators, power meters)
• Experience debugging RF systems in the field, not just in simulation
• Ability to move fast, own outcomes, and operate with minimal supervision

Skills

• RF design and deployment
• Link budget analysis
• Antenna design and selection
• RF propagation analysis
• System-level trade studies
• RF test equipment operation
• Field debugging of RF systems

Benefits

• Meaningful equity
• Top market salary and bonuses
• Health, dental, and vision insurance
• Factory in El Segundo
• Real ownership, real hardware, real flight
• Small team, massive responsibility
• High signal (engineering) to noise (management) culture
• Dream desk setup
• Free lunch
• Unlimited celsius

Pay

$120,000 - $220,000 USD

Schedule

Flexible, but often required to work nights and weekends, especially during flight operations.