Senior RF Design Engineer

Astranis builds advanced satellites for high orbits, expanding humanity’s reach into the solar system. Today, Astranis satellites provide dedicated, secure networks to highly-sophisticated customers across the globe— large enterprises, sovereign governments, and the US military. With five satellites on orbit and many more set to launch soon, the company is servicing a backlog of more than $1 billion of commercial contracts.Astranis is the preferred satellite communications partner for buyers with stringent requirements for uptime, data security, network visibility, and customization.Astranis has raised over $750 million from some of the world’s best investors, from Andreessen Horowitz to Blackrock and Fidelity, and employs a team of 450 engineers and entrepreneurs. Astranis designs, builds, and operates its satellites out of its 153,000 sq. ft. headquarters in Northern California, USA.

Senior RF Design Engineer

As an RF Engineer you will be responsible for design, qualification, and procurement of active RF electronics (frequency converters, SSPAs, LNAs, PLLs, etc) in the RF front end of satellite payloads. You will work closely with other mechanical, payload systems, electrical, and software engineers to achieve overall system requirements in your designs.Role:

• Design, simulate, implement, and measure active and passive RF sub-systems at microwave frequencies, including; SSPAs, LNAs, power amplifiers, up/down converters, oscillators, filters, etc.
• Be responsible for hardware designs from requirements definition through manufacturing, bring-up, and qualification testing
• Integrate these systems into the spacecraft by working closely with the rest of the team
• Specify, procure, and integrate third party vendor hardware
• Assist in recruiting, interviewing, and hiring additional teammates to our rapidly-growing team

• BS in electrical engineering, physics, applied physics, or equivalent
• Passion for hardware development, including working in a fast-paced environment and hands-on design and development
• 6+ years of experience
• Deep knowledge of fundamental RF concepts, such as RF circuit analysis, amplifier design, noise, linearity, radio architectures, etc
• Hands-on experience in designing, building, and testing RF hardware for microwave frequencies
• Proven completion of product from concept to production.
• Experience with RF simulation tools (ADS, Cadence, HFSS, etc)
• Experience with PCB design, layout and simulation (Altium or similar)

Bonus:

• MS or PhD in electrical engineering, physics, applied physics, or equivalent
• Experience with system in package (SiP), multi-chip modules (MCM), packaged RF hybrids, etc
• Experience developing communications satellite payloads
• Experience designing SSPAs or implementing SSPA-based phased arrays
• Experience with designing high reliability electronics for harsh environments such as space or automotive
• Antennas and Electromagnetics propagation knowledge and background
• Experience with Software Defined Radios and associated skillset (mixed signal, high speed digital)
• Familiarity with Python or other scripting languages used for automating test instruments