Senior Engineering Manager, RF Hardware

Please Note: To conform with the United States Government Space Technology Export Regulations, the applicant must be a U.S. citizen, lawful permanent resident of the U.S., conditional resident, asylee or refugee (protected individuals as defined by 8 U.S.C. 1324b(a)(3)), or eligible to obtain the required authorizations from the U.S. Department of State.

At Cesium Astro
, we are developers and pioneers of out-of-the-box communication systems for satellites, UAVs, launch vehicles, and other space and airborne platforms. We take pride in our dynamic and cross-functional work environment, which allows us to learn, develop, and engage across our organization. If you are looking for hands‑on, interactive, and autonomous work, Cesium Astro is the place for you. We are actively seeking passionate, collaborative, energetic, and forward‑thinking individuals to join our team.

Cesium Astro is seeking an Engineering Manager, RF Hardware to lead a growing team developing high‑performance electronics for our communications systems, including phased arrays, beamforming networks, RF front‑ends, and software‑defined radios. You will be accountable for the technical quality and on‑time delivery of your team’s hardware, from architecture and design through production.

This is a deeply technical management role, but not an individual‑contributor design role. You will stay close to the engineering through technical guidance, design and architecture reviews, mentorship, and critical debug, while building a team that consistently produces excellent work. You will also help establish the standards, tools, processes, and reusable engineering approaches that allow Cesium Astro’s hardware teams to execute rigorously and efficiently across sites.

• Your team delivers high-quality, manufacturable hardware to our product lines predictably and on schedule. Accountability does not stop when prototypes work: designs transition successfully into repeatable production at the required scale, with technical and manufacturing risks identified and addressed early.
• Engineering quality improves as the organization grows. You stay close enough to the technical details to identify weaknesses, mentor engineers through them, and turn lessons learned into better standards, tools, reviews, and processes.
• Teams benefit from shared engineering practices and technical knowledge across Cesium Astro. Engineers reuse proven components, designs, and approaches where appropriate, while common processes and standards enable rigorous engineering without unnecessary bureaucracy.
• You build a stronger engineering organization, not just successful individual programs. Engineers grow in technical judgment and responsibility, strong technical and people leaders emerge, and the organization develops the capability and leadership structure needed to scale.
• The initial team will include approximately 8-12 direct reports, primarily in Austin and Westminster, with a smaller presence in El Segundo. As Cesium Astro grows, people management is expected to become increasingly site‑focused while this role continues to provide technical and process leadership across the company.

• Maintain technical integrity and engineering excellence for board‑level RF electronics development across the company.
• Establish, mature, and scale engineer‑friendly RF hardware development processes, including signal chain design and analysis, simulation, and schematic and layout standards for dense, high‑layer‑count PCBs.
• Provide detailed technical review and mentorship through architecture and design reviews, identifying design risks and errors early, helping engineers develop stronger engineering judgment, and ensuring appropriate…