Senior Specialist, RF Electrical Engineer

Full Time Reg

• Grand Rapids, MI, US
• Phoenix, AZ, US
• About Acron Aviation (Avionics):
• Acron Aviation designs, engineers, and manufactures certified avionics systems that support safety‑critical flight operations across commercial and military aviation.

Our avionics portfolio includes surveillance, recorders, displays, and related systems developed in regulated environments and deployed on aircraft worldwide. We partner closely with operators and OEMs to deliver reliable, certifiable technology throughout the full product lifecycle—from development and qualification through production and aftermarket support. At Acron Aviation, avionics engineering is rooted in technical rigor, operational discipline, and a customer‑first approach to execution.

• About our

Surveillance Product Line:

• Acron Aviation's Surveillance organization develops and sustains safety‑critical systems that enable aircraft awareness, collision avoidance, and airspace interoperability.

Our surveillance portfolio includes ADS‑B, Mode S transponders, traffic collision avoidance, and integrated surveillance solutions deployed across commercial, military, and rotorcraft platforms. This work is performed in highly regulated environments. It requires deep expertise in systems, hardware, software, and RF across the full lifecycle—from requirements and certification through production and in‑service support. Surveillance engineering at Acron Aviation emphasizes technical rigor, disciplined execution, and close coordination with operators and OEM partners.

• Job Description:

• Acron Aviation is seeking a self-motivated Senior Specialist RF Engineer to join our RF Design team.

In this design role, the engineer will work to create and deliver mission-critical RF systems solutions for various customers. The office location for this role is Phoenix, Arizona, or Grand Rapids, Michigan, for full-time, in-person work. The Senior Specialist RF Engineer is a key contributor to new design activities (requirements analysis, component selection, schematic capture, layout) and to supporting existing products within the product portfolio. The engineer will work with both junior and senior RF engineers, as well as cross-functional teams (electrical, mechanical, software, systems) for all technical aspects of the RF/microwave electrical design. The position will be within the ACSS (Surveillance) product line, designing and supporting ACAS/TCAS, transponder, DME, UAT, and other RF functions.

• Essential Functions:

• Good verbal and written communication, and excellent analytical skills are essential for this position.
• Ability to work independently, as well as contribute to the work of multi-disciplinary engineering teams to ensure the successful development of RF systems and assemblies.
• Derive RF hardware requirements from system-level specifications.
• Detail functional blocks to support surveillance system architectures.
• Perform RF/analog circuit design and hardware engineering from the component level up to entire systems.
• Support detailed design, analysis, development, and testing of hardware.
• Design for and support DO-160 and/or MIL-STD qualification of RF electronics (environmental, EMI/EMC).
• Conduct and participate in internal and external system design reviews.
• Present concepts, designs, actionable information, and results to program management and Acron Aviation customers.
• Lead or work in conjunction with mechanical, systems, and software engineering to meet challenging performance requirements.
• Support internal peer design reviews, design verification testing of engineering units, and oversight of design through production.
• Develop methods for modifying systems to include new RF and wireless capabilities.

• Qualifications:

• Bachelor's Degree and minimum 12 years of prior relevant experience. Graduate Degree and a minimum of 10 years of prior related experience.
• Minimum of 8 years of RF design experience for fielded products, with preference for commercial avionics applications.
• Candidate must have an academic background in electromagnetic (EM) and RF/microwave theory.

• Preferred Additional Skills:

• Experience designing RF CCAs operating at frequencies ranging from UHF through E-band, but with a focus on L-band (1GHz). Design activities will include frequency synthesizers, up/down converters, front-end electronics, and other RF electronics.
• Experience with simulation and/or 3D modeling tools such as

HFSS, AWR

Microwave Office, and/or ADS.

• Understanding of critical performance characteristics of passive and active RF components such as ADCs, DACs, Amplifiers, Oscillators, Attenuators, Mixers, and Filters. An understanding of how these characteristics relate to a system's performance is a plus.
• Working understanding and knowledge of S-parameters (matching networks, cascade analysis, …), Gain budget analysis (Gain, NF, Linearity, Noise power, … ), and Filtering (types, bandwidth, implementations, … ).
• A strong understanding of noise figure/noise temperature (Eb/No, BER vs.

noise, receiver sensitivity, and expected value and variance), temperature effects, interconnection (standard and non-standard impedances), and isolation requirements.