Space Jobs for RF Engineers

Listed here: Viasat roles. See every employer

Pay by specialty

Every specialty gets its typical band from its own open roles, computed by the same method as the rest of the site (the 25th percentile of what roles pay (the middle of each posted range, as a year's pay: an hourly rate counts at 2,080 hours, 40 a week for 52 weeks) to the 90th-percentile posted top). A specialty is listed once three or more distinct rates have been posted.

What the roles ask for

Drawn from the requirement lines of 133 out of 389 open roles for RF and communications engineers, the same lines each role's pop-up quotes from its posting. Each role is counted once, at the lowest degree it will accept.

• Name years of experience116
• Name u.S. person status (ITAR or EAR)21
• Name a security clearance18
• Require programming (Python, C++, MATLAB and similar)14
• Set a residency or work-authorization condition10
• Ask for a professional license2

Where a posting states years of experience, the median ask is 5 years.

Who hires RF and communications engineers in the space industry

Employer	Open roles	Pay stated
Muon Space	5	$143k–$246k/yr
Array Labs	7	$125k–$300k/yr
Hubble Network	6	$105k–$286k/yr
Cowboy Space	2	$219k–$276k/yr
Amazon Leo	54	$96.6k–$250k/yr
Astrolab	1	$169k–$187k/yr
E-Space	17	$100k–$210k/yr
LeoLabs	1	$180k–$205k/yr
Inversion Space	4	$77k–$221k/yr
Kymeta	2	$140k–$230k/yr
K2 Space	9	$62.4k–$270k/yr
Xona Space Systems	4	$130k–$210k/yr
Varda Space Industries	3	$144k–$317k/yr
Loft Orbital	1	$111k–$155k/yr
Apex	4	$120k–$215k/yr
Viasat	13	$45k–$336k/yr
Impulse Space	6	$100k–$220k/yr
Planet	1	$206k–$257k/yr
HawkEye 360	3	$130k–$200k/yr
Vast	2	$120k–$210k/yr
CesiumAstro	33	$78.4k–$279k/yr
Voyager Technologies	1	$125k–$195k/yr
Relativity Space	5	$148k–$263k/yr
Blue Origin	40	$182k–$254k/yr
Northwood Space	9	$100k–$226k/yr
True Anomaly	4	Not stated
The Aerospace Corporation	31	Not stated
Elveo Mobile	6	Not stated
ICEYE	6	Not stated
Eutelsat	4	Not stated
Leaf Space	3	Not stated
Telesat	3	Not stated
OHB	2	Not stated
Axiom Space	1	Not stated
Open Cosmos	1	Not stated
Rocket Factory Augsburg	1	Not stated
Surrey Satellite Technology (SSTL)	1	Not stated
Star Catcher	1	Not stated
Thales Alenia Space	1	Not stated
Intuitive Machines	1	Not stated
SES	3	Not stated
Northrop Grumman	1	Not stated
L3Harris	1	$87.5k–$163k/yr
Boeing	11	$98.6k–$239k/yr
SpaceX	39	$85k–$300k/yr
AST SpaceMobile	8	Not stated
Rendezvous Robotics	1	$95k–$170k/yr
SEAKR Engineering	3	$100k–$230k/yr
Terran Orbital	1	$135k–$175k/yr
Rocket Lab	14	$58.2k–$253k/yr
NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory	2	$147k–$251k/yr
Lockheed Martin	1	Not stated
Lunar Outpost	2	Not stated
Astranis	3	$110k–$280k/yr

Sorted by the expected value of an application (acceptance odds times posted pay). A referral agreement, if an employer has one, can raise it in this order but never changes the salary it offers.

Where these roles are posted

The US states with the most open roles for RF and communications engineers, and the roles posted for a single country. A place name leads to its own page, and a country's count lists the matching roles.

What our research measures about rf & payloads work

Read from the open postings on 2026-10-29 by our space industry research, rebuilt every day. Every figure opens the row of the report it comes from.

• Who is hiring256 open roles (3.1% of the space roles we read) at 28 employers, 46 of them posted in the last 30 days.
• Where the jobs are3.9% of these roles are remote; the rest are on-site or hybrid.
• Who can apply84.7% of the postings are open only to US persons or US citizens, and 21.1% name a security clearance.
• Skills and toolsThe skills its postings name most: Python (60%), MATLAB (47%) and C or C++ (33%).
• Degrees and experience0.4% of the postings take a high school diploma or an associate's degree, 56.2% name a master's or PhD, and they ask for a median of 5 years of experience at the least.
• Pay transparency58.6% of the postings state their pay, at a median $162,000 a year.
• Internships and entry level12 open roles are for someone starting out (4.7% of its open roles).
• Shifts, weekends and travel33.5% of the postings ask for weekend work, 33.9% for overtime or extended hours.
• What applications askThe application forms for this work ask your citizenship or U.S. person status (88.8% of them), about a security clearance (58.8% of them), your GPA (42.8% of them), SAT, ACT or GRE scores (42.2% of them), your salary expectations (26.7% of them) and whether you have worked or interviewed at the company before (49.7% of them).