RF Build Engineer

Launcher develops the world’s most efficient rockets and orbital transfer vehicles to deliver small satellites to orbit. We are headquartered in Hawthorne, California near Los Angeles (map).  Please visit our careers page to learn more about Launcher's strategy and benefits.

Avionics Group

Launcher’s avionics group works to design, develop, test, integrate, launch and operate all the electronic hardware and software for our vehicles. This includes but is not limited to: flight software, flight computers, power conversion units, analog and digital circuit boards, FPGA HDL, RF communication units, GN&C sensors and actuators as well as enclosure and wire harness development.

Our team is made up of the very best minds from the aerospace industry. We are experts in fault-tolerant spacecraft avionics and we’ve played significant roles within NASA/JPL’s avionics and robotics communities, SpaceX, Virgin Galactic, and Google. We’ve designed hardware and software for use on Earth, the International Space Station, in orbit around Earth's moon, Mars, Saturn, and Jupiter. We’ve even driven rovers on Mars. As a hardcore engineering team, we don’t believe in half measures and we’re looking for more engineers just like us. If this sounds like where you belong, we’d like to hear from you.

The Role

As the RF Build Engineer, you will be responsible for testing and integrating the communication subsystem for our launch and orbital transfer vehicles. Your first task will be to support the Orbiter SN1 mission flying on SpaceX Rideshare to SSO Orbit in October 2022. Radio, antenna, and ground system partners have been selected and hardware will soon be delivered. Licensing, antenna placement, link budget and ground station integration are underway with our team, partners, and consultants.

Required Qualifications, Skills and Experience

• Bachelor’s degree in electrical and computer engineering, electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, applied physics, or similar area of study.
• Take delivery and own the radios and antennas for our launch vehicles and orbital transfer vehicles. 
• Bring the flight radios up, understand their abilities, protocols and interfaces, test and configuration software and set up a bench to configure and test them.
• Develop test methodologies, design/specify test fixtures and write scripts for automated qualification and acceptance testing, preferably using Python and/or C/C++.  
• Work with our communication consultants, licensing process support, ground station network partner on implementing the chosen configuration and performing end-to-end testing.
• Work with our flight software team on radio integration with our telemetry, command and payload software.
• Support and perform integration of the radios and antennas on the Orbiter SN1 spacecraft with the flight hardware.
• Perform the configuration and testing procedures on the final flight hardware at our HQ and/or Cape Canaveral.
• Once Orbiter SN1 is in orbit, you will participate in the monitoring and troubleshooting if required of this subsystem.

Preferred Skills and Experience

• Ability to build prototype wiring harnesses and RF cables.
• Ability to test RF cables using a Vector Network Analyzer (VNA).
• RF engineering and design. Bonus points for antenna design work.
• Space/Small satellite systems.
• Satellite ground stations.
• S/X/UHF Band and Radios.
• Software-Defined Radios (SDR).

ITAR Requirements:

As we must adhere to the U.S. Government space technology export regulations, including the International Traffic in Arms Regulations, you must be a U.S. citizen, lawful permanent resident of the U.S., protected individual as defined by 8 U.S.C. 1324b(a)(3), or eligible to obtain the required authorizations from the U.S. Department of State. All applicants must indicate their immigration status on their resume and/or cover letter.

Equal Opportunity:

Launcher is an equal opportunity employer. We evaluate qualified applicants without regard to race, color, religion, gender, national origin/ethnicity, veteran status, disability status, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, mental or physical disability or any other legally protected status.