Senior Mixed-Signal Engineer (Aerospace)

Location: Burlingame, California, United States; on-site.

Salary: $200K–$220K annually, plus equity; final compensation depends on education, qualifications, skills, abilities, and relevant experience.

Company

hirify.global develops Pulsar, a low-Earth-orbit satellite network providing high-accuracy global navigation and timing services as a resilient alternative to GNSS.

What you will do

• Lead the placement, layout, and high-speed routing of RFSoC-based boards for satellite and space-based systems.
• Integrate RF, analog, digital, clocking, power, and high-speed data interfaces into robust, space-qualified hardware platforms.
• Take RFSoC hardware from concept through design, prototyping, testing, and later production.
• Collaborate with RF, electrical, FPGA, and mechanical teams, as well as external partners.
• Ensure layouts meet performance, manufacturability, thermal, mechanical, reliability, and space-environment requirements.
• Support off-site testing events and contribute proactively from design through implementation.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering, Electronics Engineering, or a related discipline.
• 8+ years of experience in mixed-signal, RF, high-speed digital, or advanced PCB design.
• Understanding of electromagnetic principles behind radio-frequency communications and typical RF system performance metrics.
• Ability to interpret PCBA schematics and layout drawings; familiarity with Altium or similar PCB ECAD tools for schematic and layout work.
• Demonstrated experience laying out complex RFSoC, FPGA, ADC/DAC, RF, or high-speed mixed-signal boards.
• Strong knowledge of controlled impedance, differential signaling, high-speed serial interfaces, clock and synchronization design, power distribution, grounding and shielding, RF transmission lines, signal integrity, and power integrity.
• Hands-on experience with multimeters, oscilloscopes, signal generators, spectrum analyzers, and other electrical/RF test equipment.
• Experience using or interpreting signal-integrity, power-integrity, electromagnetic, or thermal-analysis tools.
• Experience with RFSoC or comparable AMD/Xilinx devices, including pin planning, power requirements, clocking, transceiver interfaces, and high-speed data-converter connectivity.
• Familiarity with JESD204, DDR, PCIe, Ethernet, Aurora, high-speed ADC/DAC interfaces, and RF clocking systems.
• Strong understanding of manufacturing constraints, PCB fabrication, assembly, inspection, and design-for-manufacturing.
• Self-starter attitude, proactive project ownership, excellent problem-solving and attention-to-detail skills, and the ability to work effectively in a fast-paced, cross-team environment.
• Effective communication and interpersonal skills for collaboration with multidisciplinary teams and external partners.
• Willingness and ability to travel for off-site testing events as needed.

Nice to have

• Experience designing electronics for satellites, spacecraft, launch vehicles, avionics, or other mission-critical systems.
• Experience with space-qualified or radiation-tolerant components and PCB materials.
• Familiarity with ECSS, NASA, MIL-STD, IPC, or other aerospace and electronics standards.
• Experience with thermal-vacuum, vibration, shock, radiation, EMC/EMI, and environmental qualification testing.
• Experience designing RF payload, software-defined radio, communications, radar, remote-sensing, or satellite-navigation hardware.
• Knowledge of RFSoC workflows including Vivado, PetaLinux, Vitis, RF Data Converter tools, RFDC configuration, and FPGA/embedded integration.
• Experience with RF front-end design, antenna interfaces, frequency conversion, filtering, amplification, and low-noise signal chains.
• Familiarity with radiation analysis, derating, reliability prediction, failure-mode analysis, and fault-tolerant design.
• Experience with Python, MATLAB, or similar tools for design automation, analysis, and testing.
• Experience leading technical reviews.

Culture & Benefits

• Full-time, on-site work in Burlingame, California.
• Equity is offered in addition to the listed salary range.
• Inclusive workplace committed to diversity and equal consideration for qualified applicants.

Hiring process

• U.S. applicants must be U.S. citizens, lawful permanent residents, or other protected individuals under 8 U.S.C. 1324b(a)(3) to comply with U.S. Government space technology export regulations.
• UK roles require BPSS checks and eligibility for UK Security Clearance; Canadian roles require reliability-status security clearance and Canadian Controlled Goods Program and ITAR assessment.