RF and Compute Hardware Lead Engineer

Sky Safe is the leader in drone detection and airspace intelligence, delivering unmatched visibility into drone activity. As the only company offering advanced drone detection, deep analytics, and forensics, Sky Safe enables organizations to detect, analyze, and act on drone activity with precision in real time. Its cloud-based SaaS platform provides comprehensive drone data, helping distinguish between authorized drones and potential threats.

By transforming complex drone data into actionable insight, Sky Safe empowers organizations to act with clarity and confidence and provides the intelligence needed for smarter decision-making and safer skies.

Sky Safe is evolving its hardware platform to support the next generation of drone detection systems. We’re looking for an RF and Compute Hardware Engineer to define and drive the technical direction of our detection hardware—spanning RF front ends, compute architecture, and system-level tradeoffs. In this role, you will lead the design and evaluation of future detection systems, including decisions around CPU vs GPU acceleration, FPGA utilization, memory architecture, and SDR platforms.

You’ll work closely with software, internal tools, and operations teams to ensure our hardware roadmap supports scalable, reliable, and field-deployable systems. This is a hands‑on technical leadership role with significant architectural ownership and influence over Sky Safe’s long‑term detection capabilities.

• Lead the design of next‑generation drone detection hardware systems
• Evaluate and define compute architecture for future platforms, including: CPU selection and scaling + GPU acceleration for signal processing or ML workloads
• FPGA utilization on SDR platforms
• Determine system‑level requirements for: RAM capacity and bandwidth + Storage and data throughput + Thermal and power constraints
• Drive architectural trade studies balancing performance, cost, power, and deployability

• Lead RF system design and integration for SDR‑based detection platforms
• Evaluate RF front‑end architectures, bandwidth, sampling rates, and signal chains
• Define requirements and interfaces for FPGA‑based signal processing
• Partner with software teams to align hardware capabilities with DSP, ML, and detection pipelines

• Work closely with:
  Internal Tools Lead Engineer on telemetry, diagnostics, and control interfaces + Software teams on DSP, detection algorithms, and system integration + Field operations teams to ensure designs are deployable and serviceable
• Provide technical leadership and mentorship across Hardware and RF domains

• Lead prototyping, testing, and validation of new hardware platforms
• Define test methodologies for RF performance, system stability, and environmental resilience
• Support field trials and iterate designs based on real‑world data

• 8+ years of experience in electrical engineering, RF engineering, or related fields
• Strong background in RF systems and SDR platforms (software defined radio)
• Experience designing systems using: CPUs, GPUs, and/or FPGAs + High‑speed data interfaces and memory systems
• Deep understanding of signal processing pipelines and hardware constraints
• Ability to translate detection requirements into hardware specifications
• Strong communications skills and experience leading technical direction

• Experience with Ettus or similar SDR (software defined radio) platforms
• Experience with GPU‑accelerated signal processing or ML inference
• Experience with real‑time or near‑real‑time RF detection systems
• Familiarity with embedded Linux platforms
• Experience supporting deployed, fielded hardware systems

• Systems thinker who enjoys designing for the future, not just the next revision
• Collaborative mindset and enjoyment working across hardware and software teams
• Curious, pragmatic, and driven to build reliable real‑world systems

• Complete onboarding and develop a strong understanding of Sky Safe’s mission, products, and detection architecture
• Review existing hardware platforms, RF…