Lead Electronics Engineer (Analog / Mixed-Signal)

Lead Electronics Engineer (Analog / Mixed-Signal) ACR Jersey City, NJ Job Details Full-time $125,000 - $190,000 a year 1 day ago Benefits Health insurance Paid time off Flexible schedule Qualifications Schematics Microcontrollers 3D printing Mechanical knowledge

Debugging Full Job Description What We Do:

We push the envelope in long-distance HF communications, transforming wild ideas into proof of concepts and then into tangible prototypes that redefine what's possible. We're a small team — under five people — and we operate the systems we build, so the engineering loop is short: design something Monday, deploy it Wednesday, find out Thursday what was wrong with it. We're hiring an engineer to lead analog hardware design across our HF stack, from low-noise receive front-ends to kilowatt-class transmitters, and most of the smaller pieces in between.

About the work:

HF (3-30 MHz) sits between standard RF design and standard analog design, and the techniques that matter draw from both. On the receive side, the work has more in common with low-noise instrumentation than with microwave design — JFET-based preamps, controlled-impedance differential signaling, capacitive sources, noise budgets in nV/√Hz. On the transmit side, kilowatt LDMOS at HF involves as much power electronics as RF — magnetics, thermal design, harmonic filtering, protection. Between those two ends is everything that makes the systems actually work in the field: power distribution, monitoring, control, breakouts, level shifting, the small board you needed yesterday because the prototype outgrew the breadboard. We're looking for someone who's comfortable across all of it.

The role:

Design and prototype the analog electronics across our HF transmit and receive systems, plus the supporting infrastructure that ties them together.

On the receive side:

low-noise multi-channel front-ends feeding modern integrated AFEs (AD9083, AFE58JD48 class). The objective is dynamic range — pushing the noise floor down while keeping linearity headroom up, across a system where channel-to-channel matching matters as much as per-channel performance.

On the transmit side:

1-2 kW LDMOS PAs for both CW and pulsed operation, with everything around them — drive chains, harmonic filtering, protection, thermal management, ruggedness under realistic VSWR.

In between:

the supporting electronics that make systems work in production. Power distribution boards, current and voltage monitoring with a microcontroller and a few status LEDs, FMC breakouts, filter modules, mast-bottom power splitters, the small custom board that solves a specific problem we hit on Tuesday. Some weeks the front-end is the priority; some weeks it's a bias controller for the PA; some weeks it's whatever is blocking deployment.

Day-to-day:

Schematics, layout reviews, simulation, building boards, soldering, bench testing, debugging the things that don't behave the way the simulator predicted. Writing the noise budget down so we stop arguing about it. Pushing back when someone wants to add 50 components for "robustness." Telling us when we're wrong. This is a hands-on role with real time at the bench — not a desk job reviewing other people's work. Because we're small and operate what we build, the loop between "I have an idea" and "we have a result" is days, not quarters. That's a feature if it's how you like to work, and a bug if you don't.

You probably already have:

Experience with low-noise analog design at HF or audio frequencies: JFET-based front-ends, controlled-impedance routing, the difference between voltage-mode and current-mode sensing, why bipolar input current noise becomes a problem at high source impedances High-power amplifier experience: LDMOS or similar, harmonic filtering, ruggedness, knowing what happens when the load goes to 10:1 VSWR mid-transmit Experience driving modern integrated

ADC / AFE

parts (TI AFE5xxx, AD ADC families) and a feel for why the FDA before them matters as much as the chip itself Comfort designing the smaller, less glamorous boards: a microcontroller plus a few I²C sensors and a power switch is not beneath you; it's part of the job Familiarity with EM simulation as a category — you should be able to tell us when MoM is the right tool vs. FEM vs. FDTD, even if you've only used one of them in anger Mechanical literacy — you don't need to be a SolidWorks expert, but you should be comfortable around 3D printing, basic CAD, and specifying a bracket without it being a whole project Strong prototyping habits — you build before you simulate, or you simulate to validate something you're about to build Layout intuition: where return current actually flows, why ground planes have to be continuous, why the bypass cap goes here and not there How we work: Speed over perfection. A prototype on the bench beats a perfect design in a notebook. Failed experiments are documentation, not waste. Write them down. Strong opinions, weakly held. Have a position; defend it; change your mind when the evidence says to. Skills over years. We care more about what you can do than how long you've been doing it. Someone with deep but narrow experience on one block of one program is probably not the right fit; someone with broad hands-on range across analog, mixed-signal, and the embedded glue around them probably is.

Bonus points for:

A blog, github, or youtube channel where you've documented something hard. Send it. Half-finished projects count. Strong opinions about KiCad vs Altium that you'll defend at lunch Experience with high-channel-count systems where channel-to-channel matching mattered as much as absolute performance Background in fields adjacent to but not "RF": instrumentation, power electronics, audio, scientific measurement, geophysics, ham radio

Logistics:

Based in Jersey City, NJ. Primarily on-site — much of the work involves bench equipment, prototypes, and a rooftop antenna range that won't come to you. Hours are flexible; once you're settled in, occasional remote days are workable, but this isn't a remote or hybrid-by-default role.

Compensation:

competitive, based on what you bring. Health insurance, conference budget, and whatever equipment and parts you need on the bench to do the job well.

To apply:

send a resume and a couple paragraphs about a project you've shipped — what it was, what was hard, what you'd do differently. Pictures and videos welcome. If you have a github we can read, link it. We don't care about cover letters.

Job Type:

Full-time Pay:

$125,000.00 - $190,000.00 per year

Benefits:

Flexible schedule Health insurance Paid time off Ability to

Relocate:

Jersey City, NJ 07305: Relocate before starting work (Required)

Work Location:

In person