Staff RF Geolocation Engineer

Location: On-site 3–5 days per week in Hawthorne, California or Washington, D.C.; periodic travel up to 30% required. U.S. citizenship and ability to obtain and maintain a U.S. security clearance required.

Salary: $180,000–$230,000 base compensation per year, excluding bonuses, equity, and benefits.

Company

hirify.global develops defense products powered by Coherent Distributed Networks for warfighters, commercial air operators, and border protection teams.

What you will do

• Design and derive passive RF geolocation algorithms using TDOA, FDOA, multilateration, direction finding, interferometry, and hybrid localization architectures.
• Develop coherent and non-coherent geolocation and imaging approaches, including phase-aligned multi-node processing and envelope-based localization.
• Apply statistical detection and estimation methods such as Neyman-Pearson, Bayesian inference, CFAR, maximum likelihood estimation, error-bound analysis, and linear algebra.
• Model, simulate, and mitigate oscillator phase noise, timing jitter, calibration errors, uncertain sensor geometry, interference, and low-SNR conditions.
• Implement algorithms in Python, MATLAB, C++, or related languages and translate them into real-time DSP, GPU, or other accelerated implementations.
• Build simulation environments, define RF front-end and timing requirements, support integration and calibration, conduct field validation, and document assumptions, limitations, and results.

Requirements

• B.S. degree in Electrical Engineering, Applied Mathematics, Physics, or a related technical field.
• 5+ years of relevant experience developing RF signal processing, estimation, or geolocation algorithms.
• Strong foundation in statistical and time-domain signal processing, detection and estimation theory, backpropagation, and applied linear algebra.
• Demonstrated experience developing passive RF geolocation algorithms, including TDOA, FDOA, multilateration, direction finding, interferometry, or hybrid localization methods.
• Experience applying Neyman-Pearson, Bayesian, CFAR, or related detection methods in noisy and contested RF environments.
• Proficiency in Python, MATLAB, C++, or similar languages for modeling, simulation, and signal-processing implementation.
• Experience evaluating algorithm performance under low SNR, synchronization errors, sensor-geometry uncertainty, or interference.
• Ability to translate theoretical models into software suitable for RF/SDR hardware integration and production code bases.
• Strong verbal and written communication skills, including technical documentation of approaches, assumptions, and performance results.
• Must be able to work on-site 3–5 days per week in Hawthorne, CA or Washington, D.C.; U.S. citizenship and ability to obtain and maintain a U.S. security clearance are required.

Nice to have

• M.S. or Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering, Applied Mathematics, Physics, or a related technical field.
• Current U.S. security clearance.
• Deep expertise in passive RF geolocation, interferometric processing, distributed coherent sensing, or passive imaging architectures.
• Peer-reviewed contributions to geolocation techniques.
• Experience deriving maximum likelihood estimators, Cramer-Rao lower bounds, and geolocation error budgets.
• Experience optimizing signal-processing algorithms for GPU, FPGA, DSP, or heterogeneous compute platforms.
• Experience taking algorithms through simulation, integration, calibration, and field-test validation.
• Ability to define RF front-end, clock, synchronization, and calibration requirements from sensitivity and accuracy analysis.
• Expertise with software-defined radios and related RF signal-processing toolchains.
• Experience in military or government environments and with JIRA and Confluence.

Culture & Benefits

• Medical, dental, and vision benefits fully paid by the company.
• 401(k) with a 50% company match up to 6% of pay, plus FSA, HSA, and life insurance.
• Free daily lunch, no-meeting Fridays, unlimited PTO, and casual dress code.
• Competitive base salary, pre-IPO stock options, relocation assistance, and planned annual bonuses.
• Work with a growing organization of approximately 250 employees across five global offices.