As a Senior RF Systems Engineer, you will be responsible for the design and development of the RF sensing payloads that underpin our space-based SIGINT capabilities. You will own key technical decisions spanning antenna systems, RF front-ends, receiver architectures, payload performance, and mission-level RF sensing concepts.
You will work at the intersection of RF engineering, satellite payload development, and mission engineering:
- Design and develop RF payload architectures for space-based sensing and SIGINT missions.
- Define and allocate payload-level requirements across antennas, RF front-ends, receivers, digitizers, and onboard processing systems.
- Design and evaluate antenna systems, receiver chains, frequency conversion stages, filtering concepts, and RF subsystem architectures.
- Perform RF system analysis including link budgets, sensitivity analysis, dynamic range assessment, interference analysis, and payload performance modeling.
- Develop high-fidelity simulation environments for RF propagation, signal environments, payload performance, and mission-level sensing capabilities.
- Drive technical trade studies and architecture decisions balancing performance, complexity, power consumption, mass, and cost.
- Work closely with spacecraft, software, and mission teams to ensure payload designs meet operational requirements.
- Validate models and designs using laboratory measurements, field data, and mission data.
About You
We do not expect a perfect match to every bullet point, but you should recognize yourself in most of the profile below.
Core Technical Profile
- Master's or PhD in Electrical Engineering, Communications Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, Physics, or a related technical field.
- Strong understanding of RF systems, wireless communications, antennas, microwave engineering, receiver architectures, radar systems, or electronic warfare systems.
- Proven experience designing RF, microwave, antenna, radar, communications, EW, or sensing systems from concept through implementation and test.
- Experience with RF front-end design, receiver architectures, antenna systems, RF measurements, or payload development.
- Experience with RF design, electromagnetic simulation, and PCB development tools such as CST Studio Suite, HFSS, ADS, AWR, Altium Designer, or equivalent.
- Ability to interpret and translate electromagnetic simulation results into practical antenna, RF front-end, and payload design decisions.
- Familiarity with RF propagation, link budgets, interference analysis, receiver performance metrics, and electromagnetic effects.
- Experience with RF simulation, modeling, laboratory measurements, or system-level performance evaluation.
- Programming experience in Python, MATLAB, C++, or similar technical computing environments.
- Comfortable working with simulation tools and engineering software to evaluate complex RF systems.
- Comfortable with software engineering best practices including Git, testing, documentation, code review, and collaborative development workflows.
Desired Backgrounds
- Antenna and phased-array design using electromagnetic simulation tools such as CST Studio Suite or HFSS.
- RF and microwave circuit design including schematic capture, PCB layout, and design verification using Altium Designer or equivalent EDA tools.
- Satellite communications and payload engineering.
- Radar, passive sensing, or RF sensing systems.
- Electronic warfare (EW), SIGINT, COMINT, or ELINT systems.
- RF testing, characterization, and validation.
- Space systems engineering and satellite payload development.
SIGINT / Defence Domain (Strong Plus)
- Experience with COMINT, ELINT, SIGINT, EW, or RF sensing systems.
- Understanding of emitter detection, characterization, localization, or geolocation concepts.
- Experience with distributed sensing, multi-platform RF systems, or satellite-based sensing architectures.
- Understanding of defence and security user needs and operational environments.
General
- Structured, analytical working style with strong problem-solving skills and a high bar for technical quality.
- Ability to translate complex RF and system-level phenomena into engineering solutions and actionable insights.
- Ability to take ownership from concept through implementation, testing, and operational validation.
- Strong communication skills and the ability to explain technical trade-offs to engineers, management, and customers.
- Very good command of English (spoken and written); German is an asset.
- Eligibility for security clearance.
Why Orbint
At Orbint, you will be joining an ambitious team where your work directly shapes a new space-based SIGINT capability for European defence and security. From defining RF payload architectures and antenna systems to developing next-generation sensing capabilities, you will play a key role in building the future of space-based RF intelligence.
- A brief motivation letter explaining how you became aware of Orbint, why working on space-based SIGINT for defence and security users is motivating for you, and how your previous experience would strengthen the Orbint team.
- References to prior technical work (e.g. thesis, papers, talks, hardware projects, RF designs, antenna developments, technical reports, patents, or engineering tools), if permissible.
- Your earliest possible starting date and your salary expectations.
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