Radar Systems Engineer - RF Integration and Test Engineer

Radar Systems Engineer – RF Integration and Test Engineer

Location:

Hawthorne, California, United States

Role Overview:

• Own RF‑centric integration, debug, characterization, and validation for radar hardware, subsystems, and test environments.
• Serve as the Integration and Test team's lead RF engineer across lab, production, chamber, and field environments, ensuring RF chains and test setups produce trustworthy measurements and enable rapid root‑cause isolation.

Responsibilities:

• Lead RF debug, characterization, and acceptance for radar hardware—including transmit chains, receive chains, antennas, cables, adapters, switches, filters, LNAs, HPAs, SDRs, and frequency conversion stages; qualify new components for integration into radar systems.
• Diagnose RF failures by selecting and executing appropriate measurements (S‑parameters, VSWR, noise figure, phase noise, IP3/P1dB, gain/compression, group delay, harmonics/spurs, isolation, and time‑domain) and reconciling component‑level results against system‑level performance such as detection range, sensitivity, and calibration accuracy.
• Choose the right instrument for the failure mode—VNAs, spectrum analyzers, signal generators, phase noise analyzers, power meters, oscilloscopes, noise figure analyzers, and supporting calibration standards.
• Isolate subtle RF issues such as insertion loss drift, intermittent behavior, phase instability, spurious content, compression effects, LO leakage, and timing/frequency drift.
• Define, configure, and calibrate RF test setups so measurements are repeatable and representative of system operating conditions.
• Determine whether an observed failure is caused by component defect, cable/connector/interface degradation, calibration error, fixture/setup limitation, environmental effect, or broader system interaction, and connect results back to radar‑level performance impacts.
• Partner with systems, hardware, software, firmware, and integration engineers to root‑cause failures that span RF, digital, timing, and test‑setup boundaries.
• Create RF test procedures, acceptance criteria, troubleshooting guides, and characterization reports that technicians and engineers can execute repeatably.
• Plan and execute phased array testing in our anechoic chamber, including EIRP, transmit and receive beam patterns, sidelobe levels, beam steering accuracy, element‑level calibration, and array calibration verification across the operating band.
• Stand up and improve RF portions of test racks, bench setups, and STE environments—including automated or semi‑automated RF data collection, analysis, and reporting.
• Work 5 days per week out of our office in Los Angeles (Hawthorne), California.

Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering, Physics, Applied Physics, or another related technical field, or equivalent hands‑on RF test experience.
• 5+ years of experience in RF test, RF integration, RF validation, radar systems, wireless systems, aerospace/defense systems, or a similar high‑performance RF environment.
• Strong hands‑on experience using RF test equipment to debug hardware and characterize components and subsystems.
• Strong understanding of RF fundamentals including scattering parameters, impedance matching, gain, noise figure, linearity, compression, isolation, phase stability, and frequency‑domain behavior.
• Experience designing and executing RF test plans and interpreting ambiguous measurement results.
• Ability to connect component‑level measurements to system‑level behavior and performance degradation.
• Strong documentation and communication skills, including the ability to explain RF issues clearly to cross‑functional teams.
• High attention to detail and disciplined lab/test practices.

Preferred Requirements:

• Experience with radar systems, phased array systems, EW systems, SATCOM systems, or other advanced RF/microwave platforms.
• Hands‑on experience with anechoic chamber testing of phased arrays or antennas, including EIRP measurement, near‑field/far‑field pattern measurement, beam steering verification, and array calibration techniques.
• Experience diagnosing radar calibration failures or phase‑sensitive RF performance issues.
• Familiarity with phase noise…