Applications Engineer - Senior

Senior Applications Engineer, GaN Power Amplifiers & MMIC Modules

MACOM is seeking a Senior Applications Engineer to support customer and product applications for GaN power amplifier products, including discrete MMICs and selected module products, within the MMIC Applications Engineering team at our North Carolina facility.

This role is well suited for an RF and microwave engineer who enjoys hands-on laboratory work, product characterization, customer problem solving, and practical technical execution. The successful candidate will support customer-specific technical requests, collect and interpret RF performance data, manage evaluation-board builds, contribute to sampling readiness, and help turn product knowledge into clear, useful guidance for customers and internal teams.

The Senior Applications Engineer will work closely with Principal Applications Engineers, design engineering, product engineering, product management, operations, quality, sales, and marketing. This is a strong growth role for an engineer who is ready to take ownership of complex technical work while continuing to develop broader customer-facing, product-support, and technical-leadership skills.

Key Responsibilities:

• Support applications engineering activities for assigned GaN power amplifier MMICs and selected module products.
• Characterize products in support of customer inquiries, design-in activity, sampling requests, and internal product-support needs.
• Plan, execute, and document RF and microwave measurements, including small-signal characterization, large-signal power testing, gain compression, efficiency, linearity, pulsed and CW measurements, thermal observations, and customer-specific test conditions.
• Help interpret customer data and correlate customer observations with MACOM measurements, published specifications, evaluation-board behavior, and known product characteristics.
• Manage and support evaluation-board builds for customer sampling, including coordination of board requirements, hardware availability, assembly status, test readiness, documentation, and issue resolution.
• Debug evaluation boards, fixtures, test setups, and application circuits to support successful customer demonstrations, product sampling, and design-in activity.
• Contribute to application notes, test reports, datasheet updates, evaluation-board documentation, customer presentations, and other technical collateral.
• Work with Principal Applications Engineers and other senior technical contributors to resolve complex customer issues involving RF behavior, biasing, matching, stability, thermal operation, ruggedness, linearity, efficiency, and application integration.
• Collaborate with design engineering, product engineering, product management, assembly, operations, quality, reliability, sales, and marketing to improve product usability and customer support readiness.
• Support customer meetings and technical discussions by preparing data, reviewing measurement results, answering product questions, and helping define practical next steps.
• Maintain organized lab records, test data, characterization summaries, and customer-support documentation.
• Help improve lab methods, measurement repeatability, evaluation-board processes, documentation quality, and technical support workflows.
• Provide practical support in the lab as needed, including test setup, fixture debug, RF probing, board-level troubleshooting, and occasional hands-on assembly or rework support.

Technical Focus Areas:

• GaN RF and microwave power amplifier products.
• MMIC and module-level product support.
• RF power amplifier operation, including gain, output power, efficiency, linearity, compression, biasing, thermal behavior, stability, and load sensitivity.
• Customer-specific product characterization and measurement correlation.
• Evaluation-board design support, build coordination, fixture development, hardware debug, and sampling readiness.
• Bench-level RF and microwave measurements using VNAs, spectrum analyzers, signal generators, power meters, oscilloscopes, thermal tools, probe stations, and other RF laboratory equipment.
• Product collateral quality, including datasheets, test reports, application notes, evaluation-board documentation, customer data packages, and technical presentations.

Required Qualifications:

• BSEE or BSECE required. MSEE preferred.
• Typically 5+ years of relevant experience in RF, microwave, semiconductor, MMIC, power amplifier, module, product characterization, or high-frequency applications engineering.
• Strong hands-on experience with RF and microwave laboratory test equipment and measurement techniques.
• Demonstrated ability to independently plan and execute technical investigations, analyze data, and communicate practical conclusions.
• Solid understanding of RF and microwave fundamentals, including impedance matching, power gain, compression, linearity, noise, stability, biasing, and measurement uncertainty.
• Experience supporting or characterizing RF/microwave components, MMICs, modules, evaluation boards, or…