Principal Connectivity Engineer (Drone/UAV)

Location: Torrance, California, United States

Salary: $255,000–$357,000 USD per year base salary, plus potential equity grants.

Company

hirify.global is a defense technology company designing and manufacturing high-performance unmanned systems for large-scale deployment.

What you will do

• Own end-to-end connectivity system architecture for FPV drone platforms, ground systems, and supporting infrastructure.
• Translate platform requirements into wireless architectures, development roadmaps, technical proposals, and executable engineering plans.
• Make tradeoffs across RF performance, link budgets, modulation, antennas, embedded compute, power, thermal constraints, latency, reliability, manufacturability, and schedule.
• Define video, command-and-control, telemetry, repeater, mesh, point-to-point, and ground-to-air connectivity capabilities.
• Lead architecture reviews, platform decisions, proposal reviews, feasibility assessments, and technical risk identification.
• Collaborate with RF, electrical, embedded software, systems, mechanical, manufacturing, test, product, and leadership teams while mentoring senior technical contributors.

Requirements

• Master of Science in Electrical Engineering, Electrical and Computer Engineering, RF/Microwave Engineering, Computer Engineering, or a related technical field.
• 12+ years of experience designing, architecting, integrating, or leading complex wireless, RF, embedded, electrical, or communications systems.
• Deep understanding of wireless communication systems, including link budgets, modulation, coding, receiver sensitivity, interference, coexistence, propagation, latency, throughput, reliability, and RF tradeoffs.
• Experience integrating RF hardware, antennas, embedded software, electrical interfaces, power constraints, and real-world operating requirements.
• Strong electrical engineering and embedded systems fundamentals, including power, signal integrity, digital interfaces, mixed-signal systems, firmware architecture, real-time constraints, telemetry, diagnostics, and field updates.
• Experience taking wireless or embedded hardware from concept through prototype, validation, field testing, production readiness, or deployment, with the ability to document architecture and influence technical direction.

Nice to have

• Experience architecting connectivity systems for drones, UAVs, FPV platforms, robotics, aircraft, or mobile ground systems.
• Experience with low-latency video, command-and-control, telemetry, mesh, point-to-point radios, or contested RF environments.
• Full-stack radio experience spanning RF front ends, antennas, digital baseband, embedded software, networking, and system-level performance.
• Experience deploying wireless hardware in harsh, mobile, or high-consequence environments.
• Principal-level technical leadership, defense systems, electronic-warfare-aware communications, resilient links, tactical radios, or high-reliability systems.

Culture & Benefits

• Fast-paced, hands-on startup environment focused on moving systems from design to deployment.
• Work on unmanned systems intended for combat and large-scale production.
• Base salary of $255,000–$357,000 per year.
• Highly competitive equity grants are included as part of the total compensation package.