Senior Communication Systems Engineer (Spacecraft)

Location: Westminster, CO, United States; onsite

Salary: USD 133,000–161,000 per year

Company

hirify.global develops communication systems for satellites, UAVs, launch vehicles, and other space and airborne platforms. The company is designing, building, and launching eight RF-payload rideshare SmallSats over the next four years.

What you will do

• Own the design, configuration, and operation of satellite space-to-ground communication links.
• Model and maintain link budgets, modulation and coding schemes, and reliable RF communications.
• Architect hardware-based crypto solutions for flight hardware and manage communication pass-throughs and endpoints.
• Define radio use across nominal, contingency, and emergency mission phases.
• Configure, troubleshoot, and operate ground station networks, commercial providers, and onsite terminals.
• Validate end-to-end communication performance with flight software and ground teams, optimizing low-SWaP, interference-resistant, fail-safe links.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering or a related field.
• At least 5 years of experience focused on satellite communications, RF systems engineering, or related fields.
• Experience designing, verifying, and operating satellite communication links.
• Strong understanding of link budget analysis, modulation schemes, ground station interfaces, power, bandwidth, protocols, noise, Eb/N0, Es/N0, and effective data rates.
• Hands-on experience configuring and testing ground station equipment, space-qualified radios, and antennas.
• Practical experience diagnosing space-link failures and implementing preventive solutions.
• Ability to define and implement communication-system CONOPS for nominal and emergency operations.
• Experience with satellite communication link licensing and regulatory compliance, including ITU and FCC requirements.
• Must be a U.S. citizen, lawful permanent resident, conditional resident, asylee, refugee, or another protected individual under 8 U.S.C. 1324b(a)(3), or be eligible to obtain the required U.S. Department of State authorizations.

Culture & Benefits

• Full-time employment with company stock options.
• Health, dental, vision, HSA, FSA, life, disability, and retirement benefits.
• Dynamic, cross-functional, hands-on, interactive, and autonomous working environment.
• Access to in-house test facilities and the opportunity to iterate communication designs for LEO satellite missions.