Senior RF Radar Engineer II (Space-Based Radar)

Location: Long Beach, California, United States; onsite at hirify.global's global headquarters

Base salary: $151,500–$252,500 USD annually in California.

Company

hirify.global is an end-to-end space company building rockets, spacecraft, and critical subsystems for commercial, civil, and national security missions.

What you will do

• Lead development of space-based radar systems through architecture, prototyping, integration, testing, calibration, and flight development.
• Define radar performance requirements and link budgets, and conduct payload trades covering antennas, waveforms, processing architectures, timing, PRF, and RF chains.
• Analyze range/Doppler resolution, SNR, ambiguity, interference, orbital effects, mission orbits, ground tracks, and revisit characteristics.
• Develop calibration strategies, image-quality validation methods, test plans, automated test systems, radar GSE, calibration sources, and test fixtures.
• Support spacecraft integration and interfaces with power, thermal, ADCS, data-handling, RF, digital, mechanical, structural, and software teams.
• Review proposals and requirements, support PDRs, CDRs, and TRRs, troubleshoot radar performance, and produce ICDs, test reports, and user manuals.

Requirements

• Bachelor's degree in electrical engineering, aerospace engineering, or a related field, plus 8+ years of relevant experience.
• Hands-on experience with space-based radar systems, including system integration, mission operations, imaging modes, processing, and performance assessment.
• Strong understanding of orbital mechanics and spacecraft systems, including the effects of orbit parameters on radar performance.
• Working knowledge of spacecraft power, thermal, and ADCS subsystems and their impact on radar payload design.
• Strong radar knowledge covering waveform design, pulse compression, and Doppler processing.
• Theoretical and practical RF systems knowledge, including link budgets, linearity, and noise analysis.
• Experience delivering radar/RF systems from requirements through testing for space applications, including range measurements and RF performance characterization.
• Proficiency with radar simulation and orbital analysis tools such as MATLAB, STK, or custom codes with orbital propagation.
• U.S. citizenship is required due to program requirements; U.S. office roles are also subject to ITAR eligibility requirements.
• Ability to obtain and maintain a DoD TS/SCI clearance.

Nice to have

• Existing DoD TS/SCI clearance.
• Extensive space-grade radar system design and environmental testing experience.
• Knowledge of advanced SAR techniques, including GMTI, InSAR, and polarimetry.

Culture & Benefits

• Fast-paced environment focused on hard work, innovation, teamwork, and delivery under tight deadlines.
• Company stock, Employee Stock Purchase Program with a 15% discount, and a 401(k) with company match.
• Medical, dental, vision, HSA, FSA, dependent care, disability, and life insurance benefits.
• Paid vacation and sick time, 11 paid holidays, and paid parental leave.
• Additional benefits include subsidized EV charging, fitness facilities or gym discounts, snacks and beverages, and employee discounts.
• The role may require prolonged sitting, standing, walking, computer work, and occasional exposure to moderate noise, dust, and fumes in production areas.