Principal Radar engineer

Principal Radar Engineer – MTI/GMTI

Redmond, Washington | Hybrid

$195,000–$250,000 base + equity

We're supporting a VC-backed, early-stage space technology company developing scalable, electronically steered radar payloads for advanced geospatial intelligence missions.

The technology will operate from low Earth orbit, using synthetic aperture radar to observe the Earth and detect, track and understand moving targets—including vehicles, ships and aircraft.

This is an opportunity for a hands-on radar specialist to lead the development of spaceborne MTI/GMTI modes and algorithms. You'll own key technical decisions across detection, tracking, clutter suppression, performance modelling and implementation.

What you'll do:

• Define requirements and architectures for spaceborne MTI/GMTI.
• Develop algorithms for Doppler processing, clutter suppression, detection, association and tracking.
• Model radar and tracker performance across orbital geometries and target scenarios.
• Lead waveform, detection-threshold, processing and tracker trade studies.
• Analyse simulated and measured radar data.
• Define performance metrics, test cases and verification methods.
• Partner with RF, antenna, FPGA, software and systems engineers to implement algorithms on hardware.
• Serve as the company's MTI radar specialist.
• Mentor engineers and represent the technical team during customer reviews.

What we're looking for:

• Eight or more years of radar systems or signal-processing experience.
• Hands-on MTI/GMTI detection and target-tracking experience.
• Strong understanding of SAR-based moving-target processing.
• Expertise in Doppler processing, detection theory, clutter and radar-performance analysis.
• Strong MATLAB and/or Python modelling skills.
• Knowledge of estimation theory, probability, statistics and Fourier analysis.
• Ability to translate mission needs into architectures, requirements, trade studies and verification plans.
• A practical, independent working style suited to an early-stage startup.

Particularly valuable experience includes:

• Spaceborne radar or SAR.
• Orbital-geometry modelling.
• CFAR, DPCA, STAP or multichannel clutter suppression.
• Kalman, EKF, UKF, IMM, MHT or track-before-detect methods.
• STANAG 4607/4676, OMS/UCI or related radar-data standards.
• Phased arrays, digital beamforming and radar calibration.
• Real-time implementation using C/C++, FPGA, GPU or embedded processors.
• Hardware-in-the-loop testing and radar integration.
• Briefing DoD or Intelligence Community customers.

You'll join a small, highly technical team working on a radar capability that does not exist at this scale today. This is not a narrow support position you'll have the freedom and responsibility to shape the MTI architecture, develop the algorithms and help turn them into operational space hardware.

The role offers a base salary of $195,000–$250,000, meaningful equity and significant technical ownership.

Interested or know someone with the right radar background? Please message me directly for a confidential conversation.

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