Principal RF Payload Lead Engineer

About Skylo

Skylo is a global Non‑Terrestrial Network service provider based in Mountain View, CA, offering a service that allows smartphone and IoT cellular devices to connect directly over existing satellites. Skylo’s direct‑to‑device service is now live on millions of activated devices across five continents, with more than 60 million square kilometers of coverage, in partnership with multiple satellite operators, mobile network operators (MNOs), Tier‑1 chipset makers, and OEMs.

Devices connected over satellite are managed and served by Skylo's commercial NTN vRAN, featuring a 3

GPP standards‑based cloud‑native base station and core. Skylo provides an anywhere, anytime connectivity solution that seamlessly roams between terrestrial and satellite networks. Our focus is on enabling connected services for people outdoors and connected workflows across three main verticals: mass‑market consumer devices, automotive, and industrial IoT.

This role can be performed remotely with a preference for candidates located in Mountain View, CA, where we are onsite three days per week.

Skylo is hiring a Principal RF Payload Lead Engineer, who will be responsible for the end‑to‑end architecture, design, development, and on‑orbit performance of advanced RF communications payloads enabling direct‑to‑device (D2D) connectivity from LEO spacecraft. The Principal RF Payload Lead owns the complete technical solution—from requirements definition and system architecture through hardware delivery, integration, testing, and mission operations support—of a space‑qualified phased‑array payload integrated with cellular networks and deployed at constellation scale.

• Define and own the RF payload architecture for direct‑to‑device services on LEO spacecraft, including phased‑array antennas, RF front ends, frequency planning, and waveform selection aligned with cellular standards.
• Lead the design, analysis, and optimization of phased‑array antennas (e.g., electronically steered arrays) for LEO missions, including beam‑forming strategies, scan performance, EIRP/G/T, ground coverage optimization, and handover considerations.
• Own end‑to‑end RF and communications link design for LEO space‑to‑ground cellular connectivity, including link budgets, modulation and coding schemes, Doppler impacts, interference analysis, and regulatory considerations.
• Define and manage RF payload interfaces with the spacecraft bus, including power, thermal, structural, EMI/EMC, data interfaces, and command and telemetry.
• Lead payload‑level integration and test, including functional testing, RF performance verification, over‑the‑air testing of phased arrays, and environmental qualification for launch and the LEO space environment.
• Collaborate closely with cellular RAN and core network teams to ensure compatibility with 3
  
  GPP and related standards, including protocol behavior over LEO satellite links and integration with terrestrial networks.
• Develop and maintain requirements, specifications, and interface control documents (ICDs) for RF payload subsystems and suppliers; lead technical trade studies and formal design reviews (SRR, PDR, CDR).
• Provide technical leadership to multidisciplinary engineering teams (RF, antennas, digital, baseband, and software) and manage external vendors delivering RF and phased‑array hardware.
• Support mission operations and constellation deployment, including payload checkout, on‑orbit commissioning, performance monitoring, and troubleshooting of RF and communications anomalies.

• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Electrical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, or a related field with emphasis on RF, communications, or electromagnetics.
• 8–10+ years of experience in RF and communications systems engineering, including development of LEO satellite communications payloads or space‑based RF systems.
• Demonstrated experience designing and delivering phased‑array or electronically steered antenna systems, including architecture, modeling, beamforming, calibration, and test.
• Hands‑on experience across the full RF payload lifecycle: requirements definition, design, hardware…