Principal RF Payload Lead Engineer (Satellite Communications)

Location: Remote U.S.; preference for Mountain View, CA, with onsite work three days per week

Salary: $255,000–$270,000 per year

Company

hirify.global is a non-terrestrial network service provider developing commercial direct-to-device satellite connectivity for smartphones and IoT devices through a cloud-native, 3GPP standards-based platform.

What you will do

• Own the end-to-end architecture, design, development, integration, testing, and on-orbit performance of RF payloads for LEO direct-to-device services.
• Design and optimize phased-array antennas, including beamforming, electronic steering, scan performance, EIRP/G/T, coverage, and handover strategies.
• Lead space-to-ground RF link design, including link budgets, modulation and coding, Doppler effects, interference analysis, and regulatory considerations.
• Define payload interfaces with spacecraft power, thermal, structural, EMI/EMC, data, command, and telemetry systems.
• Lead payload integration, RF verification, over-the-air testing, environmental qualification, and formal design reviews.
• Provide technical leadership to multidisciplinary teams, manage RF hardware suppliers, and support constellation deployment, commissioning, monitoring, and troubleshooting.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Electrical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, or a related field focused on RF, communications, or electromagnetics.
• 8–10+ years of RF and communications systems engineering experience, including LEO satellite communications payloads or space-based RF systems.
• Demonstrated experience delivering phased-array or electronically steered antenna systems, including modeling, beamforming, calibration, and testing.
• Experience across the full RF payload lifecycle, from requirements and design through hardware bring-up, environmental testing, and flight delivery.
• Strong analog and digital RF design skills, including LNAs, PAs, frequency conversion, filtering, link analysis, and laboratory testing with VNAs, spectrum analyzers, and signal generators.
• Deep knowledge of cellular communications and NTN/LEO connectivity, including 4G LTE, 5G NR, waveforms, multiple access, Doppler, latency, mobility, RAN, and core network behavior.

Nice to have

• Experience with direct-to-device LEO satellite programs or 3GPP NTN systems.
• Leadership of complex engineering teams delivering RF payload or communications hardware for on-orbit LEO missions.
• Experience with space systems engineering, configuration and risk management, and flight hardware verification and validation.
• Active security clearance or eligibility to obtain one.

Culture & Benefits

• Competitive compensation with a stock option equity program.
• Medical, dental, vision, and retirement benefits.
• Monthly wellness allowances and education reimbursement.
• Generous paid time off, holidays, and the opportunity to temporarily work abroad.
• Inclusive, transparent culture with employees across three continents and access to expertise spanning software, hardware, chipsets, telecom, satellites, and network virtualization.