RF Test Engineer

• RF Test Engineer

• Location:
  
  Valencia

• Reports to:
  
  Laboratory Lead & Test Architect

• Employment type:
  
  Permanent

• Workplace model:
  Hybrid

• Employment is subject to applicable security screening (incl. SUPO, where required)

As an RF Test Engineer, you’ll capture real signals from real hardware and build the system that plays them back through a channel simulator. ICEYE is building a space-based RF constellation covering 100 MHz to 30 GHz alongside its SAR fleet, and the Experimentation Lab in Valencia is where we develop, simulate and validate that capability.

Our processing, on the ground today and on board from Gen 2, is only as good as the signals we test it against. Today we have some synthetic I/Q, a few captures and a lot of assumptions. You’ll help us build a library of real emitter signals with known truth, plus a way to replay them as a satellite would hear them, with LEO Doppler, delay, path loss and interference, coherently across several satellites at once.

You’ll be one of the first engineers in the lab, with direct influence on how ICEYE builds and proves this capability.

ICEYE is the world leader in sovereign intelligence from space. We deliver persistent monitoring capabilities to detect and respond to changes in any location on Earth.

ICEYE owns the world's largest and most advanced SAR (synthetic aperture radar) satellite constellation. To our customers we provide intelligence with unmatched quality, latency and revisit times, in any weather, day or night. To governments who choose to operate their own constellation we provide this proven capability as a sovereign system.

ICEYE-built constellations serve customers in defence and intelligence, environmental monitoring, insurance and emergency management. We enable fast decisions that contribute to a safer future.

Founded and headquartered in Finland, ICEYE operates globally with over 1000 employees across Europe, North America, the Middle East, and Asia-Pacific.

• Capture real emissions: bring emitters into the lab (marine radars, AIS and ADS-B transponders, satcom terminals, partner-supplied equipment), operate them in a controlled, screened setup, and record them at the right bandwidth, dynamic range and timing accuracy. Extend this to field and airborne collection.

• Characterise captures: turn raw recordings into library entries with I/Q in a documented format (SigMF or equivalent), measured parameters (PRI, pulse width, scan, chirp, hopping, modulation), metadata and truth, so someone who wasn’t there can reuse them.

• Build the generate and playback chain: specify, integrate and calibrate the RF record and playback system (SDRs, vector signal generators, arbitrary waveform generators and multi-channel playback), from a single emitter up to a dense scene.

• Build the channel simulator path: apply per-satellite delay, Doppler, Doppler rate, path loss, multipath and interference to recorded and synthetic signals, phase-coherently across channels and driven by geometry from the simulation software.

• Develop test hardware and software: fixtures, RF interconnect, switching, attenuation and calibration paths, plus the Python code that controls and automates your instruments, so every measurement runs as a script.

• Feed the end-to-end loop: inject signals into the flatsat, receivers and processing chain, work with the simulation team so RF stimulus and simulated truth line up in time and frequency, and support algorithm validation campaigns.

• Keep operations lawful and safe: work with the regulator, site safety and partners on screened operation, test identities (MMSI, ICAO address) and RF exposure limits for everything that transmits.

Must haves:

• Hands-on…