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RF & Payloads

RF Electrical Engineer

Xona Space Systems logoXona Space Systems$130,000–$180,000/yrBurlingame, CaliforniaFullTimePosted 3mo ago
  • US citizenship
  • ITAR / US person

How this pay compares

This posting states $130k–$180k a year. Open RF engineer jobs in California post a median of $182k a year, the middle half $152k–$202k, across 135 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

Xona is the navigational intelligence company bringing real-time, centimeter-level certainty to any device, anywhere on Earth.

With Pulsar – the world’s most advanced PNT satellite infrastructure in Low Earth Orbit – Xona will offer a future-proof, backwards-compatible global positioning system optimized for absolute precision, superior power, and robust protection. ## Overview We're looking for an RF Electrical Engineerto take ownership of our spacecraft's TT&C (Telemetry, Tracking & Command) radios - the S-Band link that keeps our satellites talking to the ground.

You'll own this subsystem end to end: architecture, link budgets, PCB design, and the antenna interface, built to survive the harshest environment there is.

This is a hands-on, cross-disciplinary role working directly with electrical, systems, mechanical, and software engineers to ship a critical piece of hardware that flies. ## What You'll Own - End-to-end design of the satellite's S-Band radio - schematic capture, PCB layout, and component selection, in close coordination with antenna design engineers - Spacecraft radio link budgets across all mission phases - EMI/EMC compliance and spaceflight reliability across the design - Electrical and RF test/validation at unit, subsystem, and system level - Hardware bring-up, debugging, and performance tuning in lab and flight environments ## What You Bring - B.S. in Electrical Engineering or related field (M.S. a plus) - Hands-on experience with RF/electrical engineering, including PCB design with RF layout and routing - Proficiency with RF/EM tools: HFSS, ADS, or MATLAB - Working knowledge of EMI/EMC standards and practices (e.g., MIL-STD-461) - Experience with digital interfaces relevant to radio integration (UART, SPI, I2C, Ethernet) - Hands-on lab experience: oscilloscopes, network analyzers, signal generators - Strong documentation habits and cross-functional communication ## Strongly Preferred - Experience designing RF/electronics for space or spacecraft systems - Exposure to radiation-tolerant component selection and thermal/vacuum design constraints For U.S.

Roles:To comply with U.S. Government space technology export regulations, applicant must be a U.S. citizen, lawful permanent resident of the United States (i.e. Green Card holder), or other protected individual as defined by 8 U.S.C. 1324b(a)(3). For U.K.

Roles:To comply with U.K. regulations, this role requires Baseline Personnel Security Standard (BPSS) checks, and successful candidates must be eligible to obtain UK Security Clearance (SC). For Canada Roles:Successful candidates must obtain and hold a security clearance at the reliability status level, and pass security assessment for the Canadian Controlled Goods Program (CGP) and ITAR.

We celebrate diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, or veteran status.

From Xona Space Systems's job posting, checked 7 Nov 2026. The employer's own page is the final word on requirements and availability.

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About Xona Space Systems

Navigation infrastructure: centimeter-level positioning from low Earth orbit.

Pay on its listings: 84.3% of its open jobs state an hourly rate

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

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