Senior Antenna Engineer
Impulse Space
Other Engineering
Posted on Jan 29, 2025
As a Senior Antenna Engineer, your core responsibility will be to design antenna systems for spacecraft communication systems and GNSS receivers. You will work with RF engineers, avionics hardware engineers, mechanical engineers, and others to develop performant and maintainable solutions. You will own the antenna design lifecycle from initial design inception through prototype and characterization and supporting the design on orbit.
- Department
- Avionics
- Employment Type
- Full Time
- Location
- Redondo Beach
- Workplace type
- Onsite
- Compensation
- $130,000 - $190,000 / year
- Reporting To
- Jake Messner, RF Manager
Responsibilities
- Define antenna and feed network systems for spacecraft communications and navigation links
- Drive 1GHz – 30GHz antenna designs from initial analysis to prototype, fabrication, complete characterization, and vehicle integration
- Work closely with RF engineers and mechanical engineers to integrate antenna designs into RF front ends and vehicle structures
- Optimize antenna designs for power handling, volume and mass constraints, and radiation and thermal environments present on orbit
- Analyze real-world performance of antennas, debug antenna issues on completed vehicles, and investigate methods to improve vehicle radiated performance
- Support RF projects by simulating RF front end microstrip components, antenna hats, and assemblies for desense evaluation
- Own vehicle EMC/EMI testing characterization and specs
Minimum Qualifications
- Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering, or related
- 5+ years experience in research or development of antennas >18GHz
- Familiarity with 3D EM simulation tools such as CST, HFSS, COMSOL, or Cenos
- Experience analyzing antenna systems in the lab (s-parameters, isolation, radiation patterns, propagation effects, etc)
- Strong foundations in RF concepts such as impedance matching, s-parameters, microwave network analysis, and power handling
- Experience designing or executing test campaigns for antennas
Preferred Skills and Experience
- 8+ years experience in research or development of antennas
- Prior work on EMI/EMC test campaigns
- Experience working with electronically steerable antennas (ESAs) utilizing analog or digital beamforming
- Experience designing high gain, circularly polarized antennas
- Experience designing antenna hardware for launch vehicles, satellites or spacecraft
- System-level antenna design and placement for desense and co-existence mitigation
- Experience in a start-up or agile development environment
Additional Information:
Compensation bands are determined by role, level, location, and alignment with market data. Individual level and base pay is determined on a case-by-case basis and may vary based on job-related skills, education, experience, technical capabilities and internal equity. In addition to base salary, for full-time hires, you may also be eligible for long-term incentives, in the form of stock options, and access to medical, vision & dental coverage as well as access to a 401(k) retirement plan.
To conform to U.S. Government space technology export regulations, including the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) you must be a U.S. citizen, lawful permanent resident of the U.S., protected individual as defined by 8 U.S.C. 1324b(a)(3), or eligible to obtain the required authorizations from the U.S. Department of State. Learn more about the ITAR here.
Impulse Space is an Equal Opportunity Employer; employment with Impulse Space is governed on the basis of merit, competence and qualifications and will not be influenced in any manner by race, color, religion, gender, national origin/ethnicity, veteran status, disability status, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, mental or physical disability or any other legally protected status.
About Impulse Space
Impulse Space, the in-space transportation company founded by Tom Mueller, is opening access beyond Low Earth Orbit (LEO) with its fleet of in-space transportation vehicles. The high-energy Helios vehicle unlocks orbits beyond LEO with its powerful Deneb engine, dropping off payloads in MEO, GEO, heliocentric, lunar, and other planetary orbits. The flight-proven Mira vehicle uses a nontoxic, high-impulse chemical propulsion system to offer orbital transport, constellation deployment, and precision reentry services to customers throughout LEO. Led by a team that delivered the most reliable rockets in history, Impulse provides economical and efficient in-space transportation by reliably and rapidly getting customers where they want to go.
Our Hiring Process
Stage 1:
Application Received
Stage 2:
Resume Review
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