Senior RF Systems Engineer (Ground Systems)

Location: Los Angeles, CA, United States; on-site. U.S. ITAR eligibility is required: U.S. citizenship, lawful permanent residence, protected-individual status, or eligibility to obtain the necessary authorizations.

Estimated base salary: $150K–$180K annually, plus equity.

Company

hirify.global develops high-performance RF products and services for demanding space and defense missions, including flexible platforms for deploying, monitoring, and scaling advanced radio technologies.

What you will do

• Define top-level RF system requirements for ground terminals, including antenna interfaces, frequency-conversion chains, RF front ends, and signal processing.
• Own end-to-end terminal performance across G/T, noise temperature, EIRP, link margin, and noise figure for LEO, MEO, GEO, and defense scenarios.
• Select and manage RF front-end component BOMs, including LNAs, SSPAs, feeds, diplexers, cables, connectors, and waveguide hardware.
• Troubleshoot receive and transmit chains and lead modem hardware integration and waveform validation.
• Coordinate with antenna and mechanical engineers on pointing accuracy, feed alignment, and aperture performance.
• Plan RF acceptance testing and produce test procedures, characterization reports, and performance documentation using VNAs, spectrum analyzers, noise figure analyzers, and power meters.

Requirements

• 5+ years of hands-on experience designing and deploying RF systems or communication links.
• Strong knowledge of G/T, noise temperature, EIRP, noise figure, link budgets, and fade margins.
• Experience selecting, sourcing, and managing RF component BOMs from specification through procurement.
• Proficiency with MATLAB, Python, or similar tools for link-budget modeling and RF analysis.
• Comfort troubleshooting RF systems in field environments, including rooftops and remote sites.
• Eligibility to work with ITAR-controlled space technology is required.

Nice to have

• Experience developing or commissioning ground terminals for space or defense programs.
• Experience with parabolic dish systems, feed installation, polarization alignment, and antenna control systems.
• Knowledge of DVB-S2 or other satellite waveforms and modem-level integration.
• Experience with multi-band or frequency-agile systems, microwave RF lineups, and propagation effects.
• Familiarity with EMI/EMC, phased arrays, electronically steered apertures, or ITAR-controlled environments.

Culture & Benefits

• Cross-functional collaboration with electrical, mechanical, software, and manufacturing engineers.
• Work on commercial, civil, and defense communications missions.
• Equity is offered in addition to the base salary.
• Reasonable accommodations are available throughout the hiring process.