Skip to content

RF & Payloads

Senior Digital Signal Processing Engineer

Impulse Space logoImpulse Space$130,000–$280,000/yrRedondo Beach, CaliforniaFull timeAdded 1d agoStill open, checked every night
  • US citizenship
  • ITAR / US person

How this pay compares

This posting states $130k–$280k a year. Open RF engineer jobs in California post a median of $180k a year, the middle half $149k–$210k, across 127 jobs that state their pay, so this one is within the middle half of what they post.

RF and communications engineers in California: pay by town and employer

About the job

Impulse Space is developing advanced digital signal-processing technologies for resilient terrestrial and spaceborne communications, position/navigation/timing (PNT), RF sensing, and radar systems. We are seeking a proactive Senior Digital Signal Processing Engineer to lead DSP architecture and algorithm development for space and ground applications.

You will partner with systems, RF/antenna, ASIC/FPGA, firmware, software, hardware, validation, and mission teams to translate communication and sensing needs into implementable, verifiable systems for demanding operational environments.

Responsibilities

  • Lead system-level DSP decisions spanning algorithms, modem architecture, firmware/software, ASIC/FPGA implementation, and RF hardware for communications, PNT, radar, and RF sensing systems.
  • Develop signal-processing solutions for digital beamforming, multi-user/MIMO systems, synchronization, estimation, detection, tracking, interference mitigation, and adaptive communications or sensing.
  • Model and evaluate end-to-end system and link performance using floating- and fixed-point simulations of modem, beamforming, PNT, radar, and sensor-processing chains.
  • Translate algorithms into hardware-realizable, bit- and cycle-accurate implementations in partnership with ASIC/FPGA, RF, firmware, and software engineers.
  • Define and maintain system requirements, interfaces, verification plans, test procedures, and test vectors.
  • Analyze link budgets, channel and hardware impairments, interference, multiple-access performance, dynamic range, quantization, and other system-level tradeoffs.

Minimum Qualifications

  • B.S. in electrical engineering, computer engineering, computer science, physics, mathematics, or a related STEM field.
  • 5+ years of experience in DSP, RF/wireless systems, modem development, radar or sensor processing, or system-level modeling.
  • Demonstrated experience developing, simulating, and transitioning algorithms toward fixed-point, firmware, FPGA, or ASIC implementations.

Preferred Skills and Experience

  • M.S. or PhD in electrical engineering or a related discipline with an emphasis in communications, signal processing, controls, or RF systems.
  • Demonstrated experience with digital beamforming, phased arrays, MIMO or massive MIMO, modems, PNT, radar, RF sensing, satellite communications, or high-data-rate wireless systems.
  • Demonstrated experience with TDMA, CDMA, OFDMA, coding/modulation, link adaptation, channel estimation, equalization, synchronization, detection, and tracking.
  • Demonstrated experience modeling multipath, phase noise, group delay, fading, interference, nonlinear distortion, quantization, and oscillator effects.
  • Proficiency in MATLAB, Python, and/or C/C++; GNU Radio or other SDR experience is a plus.
  • Demonstrated experience with Git and cross-functional engineering tools such as Jira, Confluence, Bitbucket, or equivalent.

Additional Information:

Compensation bands are determined by role, level, location, and alignment with market data. Individual level and base pay is determined on a case-by-case basis and may vary based on job-related skills, education, experience, technical capabilities and internal equity. In addition to base salary, for full-time hires, you may also be eligible for long-term incentives, in the form of stock options , and access to medical, vision & dental coverage as well as access to a 401(k) retirement plan .

Impulse Space’s spacecraft manufacturing business is subject to U.S. export regulations including the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) and Export Administration Regulations (EAR). This position requires applicants to be either U.S. Persons (i.e., U.S. citizen, U.S. national, lawful permanent U.S. resident (green card holder), an individual granted asylum in the U.S., or an individual admitted in U.S. refugee status) or persons eligible to obtain an export license from the U.S. Departments of State, Commerce, or other applicable U.S. government agencies. Learn more about the ITAR here .

Impulse Space is an Equal Opportunity Employer; employment with Impulse Space is governed on the basis of merit, competence and qualifications and will not be influenced in any manner by 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.

From Impulse Space's job posting, checked 14 Nov 2026. Requirements, and whether the role is still open, are settled on the employer's own page.

Selected agencies hiring now

These agencies and apps pay SpaceJobs.Now a referral fee when someone we introduce is placed or signs up. You pay nothing for it, and the fee never comes out of your pay. Employers' own jobs below keep their own order.

Sponsored

Sponsored jobs from job networks, which pay SpaceJobs.Now when you click one.

Before you apply, free help with this posting: test your resume against it, draft answers to its questions or browse all our free tools.

New RF, communications and payload jobs in space in California, by email

A weekly email with the newest of them, pulled from the companies' own career sites, with the pay each one lists. Free; unsubscribe in one click.

About Impulse Space

Transfer vehicles that carry satellites past the orbit their rocket leaves them in.

Pay on its listings: 100% of its open jobs state their pay

How it pays: Paid as an employee on Impulse Space's own payroll (salaried or hourly, as each posting states).

More open jobs at Impulse Space

More RF, communications and payload jobs in space

An RF or communications engineer?

One profile for every employer here. Space companies and their recruiters ask us for people with a specific degree, clearance, specialty or location: add yours once, and when a job fits, we introduce you, only with your yes. Free.

Create my profile

Impulse Space openings, sent to you weekly

Each week we send the newest postings from Impulse Space's own careers site, along with similar openings at other space employers. It's free, and one click in any email stops it.