Software Defined Radio; SDR Engineer - RF Systems

ABOUT FIREFLY AEROSPACE

Firefly Aerospace is a space and defense technology company that enables our world to launch, land, and operate in space – anywhere, anytime. As the partner of choice for critical space missions, Firefly is the only commercial company to launch a satellite to orbit with 24-hour notice and the only company to achieve a successful Moon landing. Our launch vehicles, lunar landers, and orbital vehicles provide government and commercial customers with full mission services from low Earth orbit to the Moon and beyond.

Headquartered in north Austin, Texas, Firefly is looking for passionate, hardworking innovators to join our team and help fuel our successful trajectory into space.

Firefly Avionics Engineers will leverage their experience in designing, developing, and integrating new software defined communication systems for our launch vehicles and spacecraft systems. Qualified candidates will be responsible for developing the designs, managing procurement and production, developing test requirements and participating in integration and testing throughout the development cycle. You’ll work closely with avionics, software, and systems engineering teams to develop high-performance, robust communication solutions for mission-critical space applications.

• Design and implement Software Defined Radio transceiver architectures for launch vehicles and spacecraft systems.
• Develop baseband DSP algorithms for real-time FPGA implementations (including modulation/demodulation, timing recovery, equalization etc.).
• Develop RF front end designs operating in microwave frequencies (S, C, X bands).
• Perform link budgets, interference analysis, and flight qualification of the complete radio system.
• Hands-on board bring up, RF /analog debug using spectrum analyzers, network analyzers, oscilloscopes.
• Analyze circuit performance using EM/circuit simulation tools like AWR/Ansys HFSS.
• Understand and implement aerospace guidelines for development and design of electronic assemblies.
• Perform EEE component selection, electrical simulations and analyses to support flight, qualification, and test lab PCB assemblies.
• Support board and system level integration activities.
• Work with outside vendors and contractors when necessary to verify/improve performance against design requirements and schedule.
• Support design reviews by presenting design, analysis, and test results, showing component design and manufacturing meets requirements for flight.
• Develop test requirements and work with the Avionics test team to develop test plans and procedures to ensure compliance with design specifications.

• Bachelor of Science (BS) in electrical engineering or equivalent
• Minimum of 5 years experience working with SDRs and RF communication systems.
• Competent end-to-end definition, requirement generation, block-diagram design, component selection and circuit simulations.
• Practical experience with digital signal processing techniques for baseband processing in SDR platforms including various modulation and demodulation techniques, including but not limited to BPSK, QPSK, FSK.
• Experience in model-based simulation tools commonly used in signal processing, such as Python or MATLAB.
• Experience utilizing hardware description languages like Verilog for custom digital interfaces and embedded systems.
• Hands-on experience designing RF front end circuitry including power amplifiers, low- noise amplifiers, switches, mixers, and filter circuits.
• Skilled in schematic capture and PCB layout for digital, analog, and power circuits.
• Proficient in design, debug, and testing of RF and analog circuits.
• Excellent organizational skills, and experience working with vendors.
• Experienced with the usage of test equipment to verify component and circuit function.
• Skilled at giving technical presentations to peers, management and external reviewers.
• Ability to work well with others, be proactive, and execute with minimal guidance

• Proficiency in utilizing SDR design platforms, such as GNU Radio, HackRF, or USRP, for signal analysis, and rapid prototyping.
• Experience designing communication systems in X-band frequencies.
• Knowledge of…