RF Systems/Hardware Engineer

Job Description

Job Description

Salary: 180k-275k Total Comp

US Citizenship is required

An active TS/SCI w/CI Polygraph is required

Occasional CONUS and OCONUS travel may be required

Annual Base Pay: $150-180k with 25% company funded 401k based off base pay

DPG Solutions is seeking a qualified and experienced RF Systems / Hardware Engineer to support engineering analysis, baseline management, operations and maintenance, system enhancement, and integration activities for a complex, high-priority operational communications system.

This role is best suited for an engineer with hands-on experience supporting RF ground systems, satellite communications systems, hardware sustainment, troubleshooting, requirements management, and operational system support. The selected candidate will help ensure the successful operation, maintenance, sustainment, and enhancement of hardware associated with mission-critical communications capabilities.

The ideal candidate will be comfortable working across engineering, operations, maintenance, troubleshooting, documentation, and system improvement activities. This person should be able to diagnose system issues, collect and analyze diagnostic data, restore system operations, develop workarounds, support new capability development, and provide recommendations that improve system performance, reliability, and operational efficiency.

Job Description

DPG is hiring an RF Systems / Hardware Engineer to support operations, maintenance, sustainment, and enhancement of a complex operational communications system. The selected candidate will provide RF systems engineering support, hardware troubleshooting, requirements analysis, baseline management, technical documentation, and integration support.

This role requires strong technical judgment, hands-on RF test equipment experience, the ability to troubleshoot and resolve system outages, and the discipline to document issues clearly through logging and discrepancy reporting tools. The RF Systems / Hardware Engineer will support system recovery activities, operational process improvements, concept of operations development, architecture recommendations, and engineering change support.

What You Will Do

• Support operations, maintenance, sustainment, and enhancement of RF ground systems and satellite communications system hardware.
• Provide engineering analysis, baseline management, system enhancement, integration, and operational support.
• Troubleshoot, document, and resolve system outages and other operational issues.
• Collect diagnostic data, analyze system behavior, document discrepancies, and support restoration of system operations.
• Develop workarounds and corrective actions necessary to recover or improve system performance.
• Store, retrieve, manipulate, and analyze data to support troubleshooting, system capability assessments, and requirements analysis.
• Use RF test and diagnostic equipment such as spectrum analyzers, network analyzers, signal generators, oscilloscopes, and logic analyzers.
• Monitor equipment performance and make required modifications to ensure systems operate in accordance with specifications.
• Generate, analyze, track, and manage system and hardware requirements.
• Develop and maintain schematics, analysis products, block diagrams, system bills of material, and design review packages.
• Support engineering change activities, including design performance and cost trade studies.
• Provide recommendations for new operational concepts, system architecture, system enhancements, and process improvements.
• Support the development and refinement of operational and engineering processes and procedures.
• Support the generation of concepts of operations and provide technical recommendations for system architecture.
• Identify and document RF capability enhancements through white papers, technical recommendations, and other formal submittals.
• Contribute effectively on design teams and provide technical insight to engineering team members.
• Provide occasional after-hours call-in support when required.
• Support occasional CONUS and OCONUS travel, including emergency repair trips with little or no advance notice.
• Work at heights when required and complete applicable safety requirements for antenna or tower training.

Qualifications You Must Have

• Prior experience supporting operations, maintenance, troubleshooting, and sustainment of RF ground systems or satellite communications systems.
• Experience in maintaining, repairing, and enhancing mission-critical communications system hardware and related RF/SATCOM infrastructure.
• Proficiency using RF test and diagnostic equipment, including spectrum analyzers, network analyzers, signal analyzers, signal generators, oscilloscopes, FieldFox, and similar tools.
• Experience troubleshooting loss-of-signal issues across antenna, RF, modem, cabling, and signal-processing paths.
• Experience performing periodic maintenance on moveable antenna systems, including familiarity with antenna control units, servos, and related mechanical/electrical subsystems.
• Familiarity with upconverters, downconverters, modems, encoders, modulators, antenna control units, servos, and related SATCOM/RF components.
• Hands-on experience with ViaSat equipment and AMERGINT modems.
• Strong knowledge of RF cabling, connectors, cable construction, termination, testing, and validation.
• Understanding of signal loss over distance, frequency-dependent cable loss, and cable selection for different frequencies, power levels, environments, and mission applications.
• Experience in collecting diagnostic data, documenting technical issues, supporting discrepancy reporting, identifying root cause, and restoring system operations.
• Experience in generating, analyzing, tracking, and managing technical requirements.
• Experience developing and maintaining RF systems engineering documentation, including schematics, block diagrams, system analysis, bills of material, design review packages, white papers, and technical recommendations.
• Experience supporting performance, design, and cost trade studies for proposed engineering changes.
• Ability to apply technical knowledge and operational experience to recommend new concepts, architectures, capability enhancements, and system improvements.
• Ability to contribute effectively on technical design teams and provide sound engineering input.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills.
• Ability to provide occasional after-hours call-in support.
• Ability to support occasional CONUS and OCONUS travel, including emergency repair travel with limited advance notice.
• Ability to work at heights and complete applicable antenna, tower, or site safety training requirements.

Qualifications We Prefer

• Experience with RF ground systems supporting satellite communications missions.
• Experience with operational communications systems in defense, intelligence, aerospace, or mission-critical environments.
• Experience supporting fielded systems where uptime, reliability, and rapid restoration are critical.
• Experience supporting hardware integration, system enhancement, and new capability development.
• Experience with requirements verification, test support, system validation, and configuration baseline management.
• Experience supporting design reviews, technical reviews, and engineering change boards.
• Experience with system architecture analysis, concept of operations development, and operational workflow improvement.
• Experience performing fault isolation across RF hardware, communications equipment, antennas, cabling, interfaces, and supporting infrastructure.
• Experience working in secure, controlled, or government customer environments.
• Familiarity with safety, security, export control, and quality requirements associated with defense or aerospace systems.

Desired Skills

• Strong RF systems engineering judgment and the ability to troubleshoot complex operational issues.
• Ability to communicate technical findings clearly to engineers, program personnel, operations teams, and customer stakeholders.
• Ability to work independently in dynamic operational environments.
• Ability to balance immediate operational recovery needs with long-term system improvement.
• Strong attention to detail in technical documentation, discrepancy reporting, and configuration control.
• Ability to support process improvements that increase system reliability, maintainability, and operational efficiency.
• Comfortable working hands-on with hardware, test equipment, fielded systems, and operational communications infrastructure.
• Strong problem-solving skills and ability to stay calm during time-sensitive troubleshooting or outage recovery efforts.
• Work Location
• Work location to be provided by the program.
• Occasional CONUS and OCONUS travel may be required.
• Occasional after-hours call-in support may be required.

Overview of Benefits

• Annual Base Pay: $150-180k with 25% company funded 401k based off base pay
• Company-funded 401 (k) Profit Sharing Plan with 25 percent of base pay deposited every pay period and vested on the first day of employment.
• All health care benefits and premiums paid by the company, with the company's HSA contribution.
• Quarterly equity share bonuses.
• 250 hours of PTO, with up to 40 hours available to carry over.
• Biannual company-sponsored events for employees and their families.
• Education benefits, including certification reimbursement and tuition reimbursement.