RF & Antenna Systems Engineer
US$140,000 – US$226,000 / yr base salary
Posted 25 Sep 2026
Advertised as “Senior RF & Antenna Systems Engineer”
BranchFactor Summary
The original posting with the fluff stripped out
- Expected experience
- 5+ yrs
- Management level
- Individual contributor
- Employment
- On-Site
- Contract
- Full-time
| Base salary | US$140,000 – US$226,000 / yr |
|---|
Field of studyApplied Physics, Communications Engineering, Electrical Engineering (or related)
Study levelBachelor's or higher
About Northwood:
Northwood is a modern space infrastructure company bringing the benefits of space to the masses through advanced communications technology. We are building a global network of phased array ground stations that enable real-time, reliable communication for satellite missions such as national security, global connectivity, and disaster response. With a vertically integrated approach, Northwood designs, builds, and rapidly deploys scalable systems that power the next generation of space missions. If you like solving complex challenges and seeing your work deployed around the world with real impact, Northwood is the place to do it.
Role:
As an Senior RF & Antenna Systems Engineer you will define and evaluate phased-array RF architectures for Northwood’s satellite ground-station network. You will translate mission and link requirements into antenna, aperture, beamforming, RF front-end, calibration, and tracking requirements, and evaluate how those choices affect end-to-end communications performance.
This role sits at the intersection of phased arrays, RF systems, SATCOM links, and physical-layer communications. You will work closely with antenna, RF, DSP/communications, digital, mechanical, manufacturing, software, and operations teams to ensure that the complete ground-station system achieves its required link performance.
The ideal candidate has deep experience in phased-array or antenna systems and can reason beyond the aperture—connecting gain, scan loss, polarization, sidelobes, noise, linearity, phase noise, calibration, and propagation to EVM, acquisition, BER, throughput, and link availability.
Responsibilities:
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Define phased-array antenna and RF-system architectures for satellite communication ground stations.
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Translate mission, coverage, link-availability, waveform, throughput, and regulatory requirements into aperture, RF front-end, beamforming, calibration, pointing, and tracking specifications.
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Develop and maintain end-to-end SATCOM link budgets incorporating measured aperture and RF-chain performance.
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Analyze analog, hybrid, and digital beamforming approaches in collaboration with RF and digital implementation teams.
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Determine how antenna and RF impairments affect communications performance, including EVM, carrier acquisition, BER/BLER, throughput, spectral compliance, and link availability.
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Analyze RF lineups and performance budgets for gain, noise figure, dynamic range, linearity, compression, intermodulation, phase noise, frequency stability, filtering, and isolation.