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RF Engineer
Career Insights for Radio Frequency (RF) Engineer
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Based on Maryland data
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What they do
A Radio Frequency (RF) Engineer works with technology and electronic equipment that uses radio waves, from cell phones to radio stations. Designs, installs, and repairs systems and equipment that transmit radio signals. May specialize in design or maintenance; may focus on the design of transmission equipment, such as radio antennae, or manage larger systems such as networks of cell phone towers.
$129,765 / year median in Maryland
-11% projected decline
Job Description
RF Engineer
BTS is seeking an RF Engineer to provide intelligence support, supporting the Intelligence and Information Warfare Directorate (I2WD) at Aberdeen Proving GroundWhat You'll Get to DoLead the design, development, and integration of custom radio and RF hardware supporting critical national security missions. You'll work across RF, digital, FPGA, and embedded systems to develop new communications capabilities, troubleshoot complex hardware, and rapidly prototype solutions for advanced mission requirements.
More About the RoleAs a Radio Systems / RF Hardware Engineer, you'll provide hands-on engineering expertise across the full radio development lifecycle, from architecture and component selection through circuit design, FPGA integration, board bring-up, and RF characterization. You'll develop and integrate RF front ends, digital processing hardware, and embedded components while using laboratory test equipment to evaluate and troubleshoot system performance. You'll collaborate with embedded software, FPGA, cybersecurity, and systems engineering personnel to develop and mature custom radio capabilities for sophisticated operational environments.
More About the RoleAs a Radio Systems / RF Hardware Engineer, you'll provide hands-on engineering expertise across the full radio development lifecycle, from architecture and component selection through circuit design, FPGA integration, board bring-up, and RF characterization. You'll develop and integrate RF front ends, digital processing hardware, and embedded components while using laboratory test equipment to evaluate and troubleshoot system performance. You'll collaborate with embedded software, FPGA, cybersecurity, and systems engineering personnel to develop and mature custom radio capabilities for sophisticated operational environments.
Required Qualifications:
- Active TS/SCI security clearance.
- Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, or related discipline, or equivalent relevant experience.
- Experience designing, developing, integrating, or troubleshooting RF communication systems or radio hardware.
- Strong understanding of RF fundamentals, including signal chains, filtering, amplification, frequency conversion, impedance matching, noise, and link budgets.
- Experience with analog/digital circuit design and PCB-level hardware development.
- Familiarity with MATLAB/Simulink, Python, C/C++, or embedded Linux.
- Experience developing or integrating FPGA-based systems using Verilog, SystemVerilog, or VHDL.
- Experience integrating embedded processors, FPGAs, RF transceivers, ADCs/DACs, or similar devices.
- Hands-on experience with RF and electronics test equipment such as oscilloscopes, spectrum analyzers, VNAs, signal generators, and logic analyzers.
- Ability to troubleshoot hardware at the component, board, and system levels.
Desired Qualifications:
- Experience designing a radio or RF transceiver from the board/component level, not solely integrating commercial radios.
- Experience with software-defined radios, RF transceiver ICs, RF front ends, PLLs, mixers, LNAs, PAs, and filters.
- Experience implementing DSP functions in FPGA logic, including filtering, FFTs, modulation/demodulation, or digital up/down conversion.
- Experience with RF/mixed-signal PCB design, controlled impedance, grounding, shielding, signal integrity, and EMI/EMC considerations.
- Experience with RFSoC, SoC FPGA, high-speed ADC/DAC interfaces, or similar architectures.
- Experience with communications, unmanned systems, electronic warfare, SIGINT, radar, or other RF-intensive defense applications.
- Experience rapidly prototyping and debugging custom RF or embedded hardware.