← All roles

Senior RF Engineer

Wardstone
Apply on company site
Hybrid (El Segundo)$140k - $170kFull-timePosted 6d ago

About the role

You will own Wardstone’s radar seeker, from the RF front end through signal processing to the track data that drives guidance. A senior, high-ownership role coordinating with GNC, avionics, and mechanical teams to take the seeker from the lab bench to live intercepts and, as the program grows, to hire and lead a seeker team.

Responsibilities

  • Own the seeker architecture
  • Define the seeker architecture and lead make-vs-buy decisions for radar sensors, front-end components, and processing hardware
  • Own Tx/Rx chain analysis, including link budgets, noise figure, and phase noise, and integrate antennas with the airframe and radome
  • Specify the high-speed data interfaces between the seeker and the avionics, such as high-speed ADCs/DACs and PCIe
  • Select and manage suppliers for RF components and subsystems
  • Build low-latency processing pipelines that detect and track high-speed targets, including Doppler processing, range-Doppler mapping, and CFAR detection
  • Develop clutter and ECM rejection
  • Implement and optimize the pipeline on the flight processor [FPGA / GPU / embedded CPU]
  • Own the seeker-to-guidance interface. Work with the GNC team to fuse radar tracks with IMU, GPS, and onboard state estimates (EKF/UKF) for closed-loop terminal guidance
  • Design RF test rigs and run hardware-in-the-loop tests using anechoic chambers, radar scene generators, RCS reference targets, and flight dynamics models
  • Lead seeker testing from the lab bench through environmental qualification and flight test

Qualifications

  • B.S. in Electrical Engineering, Physics, Aerospace Engineering, or a related field. M.S. preferred
  • 6+ years designing, integrating, or testing radar systems, including ownership of a significant subsystem through hardware test
  • Deep understanding of radar physics and electromagnetics, including noise figure, phase noise, and link budget analysis
  • Strong DSP background, with experience implementing real-time radar detection and tracking
  • Proficiency in C++ and Python, and experience with real-time or embedded systems
  • Hands-on lab experience testing radar architectures (FMCW, pulsed Doppler, or AESA) with spectrum analyzers, VNAs, and oscilloscopes
  • Experience sourcing RF components and making make-vs-buy decisions
  • Must be a U.S. person as defined by ITAR (U.S. citizen, lawful permanent resident, or protected individual). [Must be eligible to obtain a U.S. security clearance.]

Skills

Required:Seeker architecture designTx/Rx chain analysisHigh-speed data interfacesRF component sourcingReal-time signal processingClutter and ECM rejectionFlight processor optimizationSeeker-to-guidance interfaceRF test & verification
Last updated Oct 21, 2026. Interested? Apply on the company site.
Wardstone logo

About Wardstone

Satellites for Missile Defense

Wardstone is a space defense-tech company developing next-generation capabilities to protect the United States and its allies from missiles and other space-based threats. We design, build, and deploy satellites equipped with space-based interceptors to kinetically counter hypersonic and ballistic missiles.

space-explorationsatellitesrocketryaerospace
Company profileWebsite

More open roles at Wardstone