Wireless Systems Architect (MAC, PHY, C++, embedded)

Work location: Remote

About the role

This is a possible 3-month Contract-to-Hire (CTH) role. A meet and greet is mandatory.

Responsibilities

• Lead the design, development, and end-to-end ownership of custom wireless MAC protocols optimized for high-velocity LEO satellite communications, including inter-satellite, space-to-ground, and ground-to-space links.
• Design and implement advanced resource allocation, scheduling, QoS, and interference mitigation algorithms leveraging principles from 3GPP LTE/5G, IEEE 802.11 (Wi-Fi), and IEEE 802.16 (WiMAX) technologies.
• Architect and optimize high-performance packet processing dataplanes using DPDK, VPP, or similar frameworks to deliver low-latency and high-throughput networking solutions.
• Collaborate closely with PHY, RF, FPGA, and hardware engineering teams to define software-hardware interfaces and ensure seamless integration across the wireless communication stack.
• Drive technical architecture decisions and define the roadmap for next-generation wireless networking solutions, balancing latency, reliability, throughput, and spectral efficiency requirements.
• Lead system design reviews, technology evaluations, and trade-off analyses to optimize overall network performance in dynamic satellite environments.
• Develop simulation, modeling, and performance analysis methodologies to validate protocol designs and assess system behavior under varying operating conditions.
• Drive software quality through architecture reviews, code reviews, debugging, performance optimization, and adherence to engineering best practices.
• Mentor senior and staff engineers, providing technical leadership and fostering excellence in wireless systems and embedded software development.
• Partner with cross-functional teams to translate product requirements into scalable and reliable wireless networking solutions.

Requirements

• Bachelor's or Master's degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Telecommunications, or a related technical field.
• 12+ years of professional experience in wireless networking software development.
• 5+ years of experience in a Principal Engineer, Lead Architect, or equivalent technical leadership role.
• Deep understanding of wireless communication fundamentals, including modulation, coding, link budget analysis, channel modeling, mobility, interference management, and multiple-access schemes.
• Extensive experience designing, implementing, and optimizing MAC and PHY layers for wireless standards such as 3GPP LTE/5G NR, IEEE 802.11 (Wi-Fi), IEEE 802.16 (WiMAX), or equivalent technologies.
• Strong expertise in wireless protocol stack architecture, radio resource management, scheduling, QoS, and performance optimization.
• Expert-level programming skills in C/C++ within Linux, embedded systems, RTOS, or high-performance user-space environments.
• Proven experience developing high-performance packet processing systems with expertise in memory management, buffer architectures, multi-threading, and low-latency networking.
• Demonstrated ability to architect complex systems and lead cross-functional engineering initiatives from concept through deployment.