SpaceX The Sr. Antenna Engineer designs and develops antennas and RF systems for Starship vehicles, covering frequencies from VHF through Ka-band. This role includes hardware product development, system architecture, analysis, and verification.
Responsibilities
Design of antennas for communications and sensors, in VHF through Ka-band
Build and characterization of antenna, feed, and front-end prototypes
Development of measurement systems to support design
Analysis of wireless systems (antenna isolation, patterns with large structures, propagation effects, etc.)
Multidisciplinary collaboration to improve RF manufacturing, mechanical integration, and testability
Provide antenna expertise and RF radiation expertise (plasma attenuation, shielding, etc) to various aspects of the spacecraft
Qualification
Required
Bachelor's degree in an engineering discipline
5+ years of relevant professional or project experience in antenna design/build/test and electromagnetic simulations
Preferred
Master’s degree or PhD in electrical engineering with research/thesis work on RF or antennas
Experience with test equipment such as spectrum analyzer, signal generator, network analyzer, power meters, and RF passive components
Proficiency with basic RF concepts such as impedance matching, linear and aperture antennas, smith chart, power handling metrics (IIP2, IMD), microwave network analysis, RF filter design
Experience with near-field or far-field chamber design and operation
Familiar with antenna measurement techniques and tools such as anechoic/reverb chambers, near field EM measurements
Experience with electrical schematic capture software (Altium, Orcad or similar)
Familiar with RF circuit simulation tools for cascade analysis: AWR, ADS, Genesys
Experience with electromagnetics simulation tools such as HFSS, CST, Savant, or similar – including tradeoffs of FEM, MoM, FDTD, and PO methods
