Radar Systems Engineer

We are seeking a Radar Systems Engineer to be the responsible engineering authority for our radar products which operate from our autonomous systems. You will translate mission and perception needs into radar requirements, make architecture and performance tradeoffs. You will connect RF hardware, signal processing, tracking, and embedded implementation into a validated sensing system and developing testing and verification procedures to show that our radar meets requirements.

Lastly you will support field test of these assets and serve as a technical representative for our first product to a variety of government and industry customers.

• Define radar requirements for hardware and software.
• Develop radar performance models and budgets.
• Evaluate waveform, antenna, RF front-end, data-converter, and processing architectures against size, weight, power (SWAP), compute, and cost constraints.
• Develop and assess signal-processing methods for range–Doppler and FMCW processing, detection, angle estimation, clutter mitigation, and target tracking.
• Define calibration, timing, coordinate frames, data interfaces, beamforming and quality metrics for integration with autonomy and sensor-fusion software.
• Create laboratory and field test plans, analyze measured data, and reconcile observed performance with models and requirements.
• Work with firmware and electrical engineers to implement algorithms within real-time resource limits and diagnose end-to-end performance issues.
• Work with platform engineers to integrate the radar and assess installed performance.

• Bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering, physics, applied mathematics, or a related field, or equivalent practical experience.
• At least 4 years of relevant radar engineering experience, including hands-on development or integration and measured performance validation.
• Solid understanding of radar fundamentals, RF system behavior, sampling, spectral analysis, detection statistics, and estimation.
• Experience modeling radar performance and analyzing signal or measurement data using Python, MATLAB, or equivalent tools.
• Experience with radar signal processing and the practical effects of clutter, multipath, interference, calibration error, and target variability.
• Ability to turn system objectives into testable requirements and communicate tradeoffs across hardware and software teams.

• Master’s or doctoral degree with a focus on radar, electromagnetics, signal processing, or estimation.
• Experience with FMCW or pulse-Doppler radar, MIMO arrays, digital beamforming, or phased arrays.
• Experience with mm-wave radars in multiple contexts (automotive, small drones, etc)
• Experience with multi-target tracking, sensor fusion, platform motion compensation, and radar perception for autonomous platforms.
• Experience implementing processing in C++, on embedded processors, GPUs, DSPs, or FPGAs.
• Experience with RF instrumentation, antenna characterization, environmental testing, and radar operation in difficult field conditions.

$160,000 - $220,000 a year

Chirp offers competitive benefits and unlimited vacation.

CHIRP Robotics is a well-funded seed-stage startup operating in stealth mode and based in Torrance, California. The company aims to become a leading U.S. provider of modular intelligence and autonomous systems for a wide range of vehicles and applications. It has an impressive portfolio of patents on the hardware side and IP in software / algorithms. CHIRP’s CEO, a founding member of SpaceX, brings extensive technical expertise, a strong professional network, and significant business leadership experience.

• Opportunity to work on innovative and complex systems.
• Hands-on experience with a broad range of engineering challenges.
• Collaborative and growth-oriented work environment.
• Competitive salary and benefits package. If you are a driven and passionate engineer looking to work and grow in a challenging and rewarding role, we would love to hear from you!