Antenna Engineer

Principal Antenna Engineer - Radar Payloads Location: Seattle, WA Salary: up to $220,000 Gross Per Annum + Stocks/Shares + Brilliant benefits package You'll join a venture-backed space technology company building the flight-ready electronically scanned antenna arrays at the heart of next-generation spaceborne radar missions. Our state-of-art antennas need to deliver the gain, efficiency, bandwidth, scan performance, sidelobe control, polarization purity, and calibration accuracy that advanced SAR and target-tracking payloads demand and we're looking for the engineer who can own that problem end to end. As Principal Antenna Engineer, you'll have ownership of the antenna end to end: requirements and architecture (including interfaces to adjacent systems), EM design, prototype build, measurement, calibration, and qualification. You'll be the technical owner translating radar performance needs into flight-ready hardware, with a direct line to payload integration and launch. Day to day, you'll: Own phased-array antenna design and EM modeling, from requirements through architecture and trade studies Build and measure prototypes, correlating EM models to test data Optimize and calibrate array performance across frequency and scan angle Develop beam-steering and alignment methods, working closely with RF, FPGA/DSP, and software teams Support spacecraft integration and environmental qualification Mature antenna hardware from prototype to a flight-ready, repeatable product You'll bring: Expert-level design experience with phased-array / electronically scanned antennas — array theory, impedance and mutual coupling, scan behavior, and polarization Hands-on experience with beamforming and array calibration High-frequency PCB, feed, and passive RF component design Proficiency with EM simulation tools such as HFSS, CST, or FEKO Programming/scripting skill in Python or MATLAB for modeling and data analysis Experience with VNA and near-/far-field antenna measurement Experience carrying RF hardware through space qualification You'll also need to be hands-on, rigorous, self-driven, and take full ownership of outcomes, with strong first-principles EM judgment, discipline about correlating models to test data, and comfort operating with ambiguity and evolving requirements; while collaborating closely across RF, digital, mechanical, thermal, and software disciplines. This role may require access to U.S. export-controlled information and may require the ability to obtain a U.S. government security clearance. Candidates must be a U.S. citizen to be eligible. #J-18808-Ljbffr