Senior RF Hardware Engineer, Wideband Receivers - Design RF Boards from the Component Level Up Tampa, FL | On-site Opportunity Summary Join an early-stage defense technology company building RF sensing and electronic warfare systems for demanding operational environments. Every receive, compute, and transmit board in the company's systems is designed in-house from zero. The team intentionally avoids building RF systems by connecting packaged front ends and amplifier modules to an SDR; it designs discrete, component-level hardware instead, and that is a core differentiator. You will lead RF hardware for a new wideband passive sensing product, starting from the company's existing receive and transmit paths and adapting them for a new use case, owning both the RF signal chain and the RF power and power delivery design. You will be part of a newly formed team of four to five engineers chartered to deliver a V0 of a new distributed RF sensing product in roughly 90 days. The team starts from a short list of functional goals rather than a fixed requirements document, has a dedicated development budget, and decides for itself how to get there. Expect weekly development spins, with new PCB revisions ordered at the end of most weeks.

Iterations are engineer-driven:

if you see a way to make your design better, you make the call and the respin gets built. About Us We are a venture-backed defense technology startup founded by former Army officers with frontline electronic warfare and cyber experience. The company builds spectrum-control systems that detect, disrupt, mask, and manage wireless signals, and designs its receive, compute, and transmit boards, firmware, and software in-house down to the component level. Systems are already fielded with Army and special operations users, defense programs are advancing toward production, and a new commercial sensing product line is entering large-scale deployment. The team of roughly 15 is growing quickly ahead of its next funding round. Job Duties Lead RF hardware design for a new wideband sensing product, adapting existing in-house receive and transmit paths to new requirements Design RF front ends covering roughly 300 MHz to 6 GHz, including preselection, filtering, LNAs, switches, gain stages, and mixers Own board-level power architecture and power delivery networks for RF, mixed-signal, and converter circuitry Capture schematics and lay out boards in Altium down to the component level, with close attention to grounding, isolation, impedance, and coupling Analyze and optimize noise figure, linearity, compression, spurious response, and gain distribution in congested spectrum Design gain strategies that preserve weak-signal detection next to strong nearby emitters Interface receiver hardware with Analog Devices transceivers, high-speed ADCs, FPGA platforms, and compute boards Bring up and characterize new boards in the lab, then drive fixes into the next weekly spin Support multichannel receive paths and calibration for direction finding and geolocation Support DFM, production test development, and EMI/EMC troubleshooting as hardware moves toward pilot production Work closely with FPGA, geolocation, firmware, mechanical, and systems engineers during integration Qualifications BS in Electrical Engineering or a related discipline, or equivalent practical experience 5+ years of hands-on RF or microwave hardware design Demonstrated component-level RF board design using discrete LNAs, filters, switches, mixers, and amplifiers, not primarily integrating packaged RF modules Hands-on schematic capture and PCB layout in Altium Designer Experience with both the RF signal chain and RF power, including power delivery network design Designed at least one RF receiver or transceiver board through working, tested hardware Strong grasp of noise figure, dynamic range, IP3, compression, spurious response, and blocker performance Strong lab skills with VNAs, spectrum analyzers, signal generators, and oscilloscopes Able to move a board from schematic to working hardware quickly with limited spins U.S. citizenship required, with the ability to obtain and maintain a security clearance Comfortable turning broad goals into your own plan and delivering on weekly iteration cycles with minimal top-down direction Able to work on-site in Tampa, FL Preferred Experience Multichannel or phase-coherent receiver design and channel-to-channel calibration Experience with SDR front ends, direct-sampling ADCs, or RFSoC-based systems Cellular, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, or GNSS RF experience RF simulation in Keysight

ADS, AWR

Microwave Office, or Ansys

HFSS EMI/EMC

design and pre-compliance testing Background in consumer wireless, telecom, medical devices, test and measurement, or other high-performance RF industries; defense experience is not required Why Join Us Lead RF design for a new product line on a small team where your architecture decisions stick Design custom receiver and power electronics at the component level rather than integrating packaged modules Dedicated development budget, so the team is not forced to cut corners to hit the schedule Weekly build, test, and iterate cycles where engineers decide when a design needs another spin Optional travel to field exercises, new equipment training, and customer demonstrations for those who want it; no one is required to travel Health, dental, and vision coverage with employer-subsidized premiums 401(k) with company match, available from day one Unlimited PTO with no accrual period Streamlined hiring process: one recruiter conversation and one virtual technical interview with the team you would join Join at an early stage with significant ownership and long-term growth as the company scales Compensation Details $120,000 - $150,000 #LI-AV