Founding Lead RF & EMC Engineer

Equity: 0.3% – 1% depending on experience

About Us

We're a stealth team building space hardware at the edge of what's currently possible — high-stakes, flight-grade systems where the engineering bar is unforgiving and the upside is enormous. While we can't share full details yet, our founding and early engineering team includes talent from SpaceX, Northrop Grumman, and Impulse Space, the group includes people who've pulled off feats almost no one else on Earth has.

Role Overview

We are seeking a Lead RF & EMC Engineer to own our spacecraft's RF systems and electromagnetic compatibility from first principles — the links that connect the vehicle to the ground, and the discipline that keeps every system on board from interfering with another.

This is a senior technical leadership role. You will not only define and execute the RF and EMC architecture, but also help build the team, set technical standards, mentor engineers, and establish the systems, processes, and culture required to develop flight-grade RF hardware.

This is not a narrow component-design role. You will own the full RF chain: frequency planning and link budgets, antennas and their placement on the vehicle, RF front ends and transceivers, and the spectrum licensing that lets us transmit at all. You will also own the vehicle's EMC program — grounding, bonding, shielding, emissions and susceptibility requirements, and the test campaigns that prove compliance. You will partner closely with avionics on radio selection, interfaces, and board-level EMC, and make system-level trades across RF performance, mass, power, thermal, cost, and reliability.

The ideal candidate has direct experience with spacecraft RF systems, antenna design, EMC engineering, environmental qualification, and technical team leadership. We recognize that very few people have all of this. What matters most is that you have exceptional fundamentals, have led real RF systems from concept toward flight, have managed or mentored engineers in high-performance technical environments, and can operate independently in ambiguity while making sound engineering tradeoffs. You will have direct ownership over one of the company's core technical challenges.

Key Responsibilities

Own the RF and EMC architecture, from early design through development, integration, test, qualification, and flight operations.

Own end-to-end link design: frequency planning, link budgets, modulation and coding trades, data rate and margin analysis, and coverage across every mission phase.

Lead design, selection, and qualification of RF hardware: transceivers, transponders, LNAs, power amplifiers, filters, diplexers, switches, and coaxial and waveguide assemblies.

Design, simulate, and test antennas (e.g., patch, helix, horn, reflector, phased array), and own antenna placement, field-of-view, pattern, and multipath analysis on the vehicle.

Analyze and mitigate high-power and space-environment RF effects: multipaction, passive intermodulation, corona, and thermal effects on RF performance.

Lead spectrum licensing and coordination: FCC, NTIA, and ITU filings, frequency coordination, and compliance with ground network partner requirements.

Partner with the ground segment on ground station and network provider selection, and on end-to-end RF compatibility testing between vehicle and ground.

Own the vehicle EMC program: the EMC control plan, emissions and susceptibility requirements (e.g., MIL-STD-461, MIL-STD-464), and allocation of limits to each subsystem and unit.

Define grounding, bonding, shielding, and harness EMC requirements with avionics, mechanical, and integration teams.

Perform system-level compatibility analysis: RF self-compatibility between transmitters and receivers, intra-system EMC, ESD and spacecraft charging, ordnance and pyro safety margins, and launch vehicle compatibility.

Build the RF and EMC test infrastructure: RF test sets, ground station emulators, antenna measurement capability, pre-compliance EMC setups, and automated RF test.