RF Modem Engineer

Serve as the technical lead for the design, integration, and lifecycle management of advanced RF modules supporting broadband wireless, satellite, or high-speed communications systems.
Define RF architectures and establish performance budgets, including gain, noise figure, linearity, phase noise, dynamic range, and spurious emissions.
Ensure RF subsystem performance meets specifications across process, voltage, temperature, aging, and environmental operating conditions.
Perform system-level trade studies and evaluate the impact of changing technical requirements, component selections, and operating environments.

Review and approve RF schematics, PCB layouts, and design documentation developed by internal engineering teams and external design partners.
Ensure best practices are followed for:
- RF grounding and isolation
- Signal integrity and high-speed layout
- EMI/EMC mitigation
- Thermal management
- Mixed-signal design and partitioning
Participate in design reviews, technical readiness assessments, and product milestone reviews while identifying technical risks and recommending mitigation strategies.

Act as the primary engineering interface with contract manufacturers, fabrication partners, assembly houses, and component suppliers.
Lead Design for Manufacturability (DFM), Design for Testability (DFT), and Design for Serviceability (DFS) reviews to maximize production yield, reliability, and long-term manufacturability.
Develop and maintain:
- Manufacturing test strategies
- Acceptance and qualification criteria
- Golden reference units
- Correlation and calibration plans
Support engineering validation, design verification, production validation, and manufacturing ramp-up activities.
Analyze manufacturing data, yield trends, and field returns to identify root causes and implement corrective actions.
Manage Engineering Change Requests (ECRs) and Engineering Change Orders (ECOs), ensuring full product lifecycle traceability.

Develop and maintain RF, functional, and system-level test procedures.
Support laboratory validation and production testing, including measurements such as:
- Error Vector Magnitude (EVM)
- Modulation Error Ratio (MER)
- Adjacent Channel Leakage Ratio (ACLR)
- Phase Noise
- Harmonics and Spurious Emissions
- Frequency response and waveform compliance
Partner with systems, hardware, and test engineering teams to ensure complete requirements verification and traceability.
Support environmental qualification, thermal characterization, vibration testing, and long-term reliability validation for high-performance communications products.

Collaborate with embedded software and firmware teams responsible for configuring, controlling, and monitoring RF hardware.
Review and support embedded interfaces including SPI, I²C, UART, GPIO, and other hardware communication protocols.
Support board bring-up, hardware calibration, compensation algorithms, telemetry, diagnostics, and health monitoring functions.
Ensure embedded control software supports both manufacturing test environments and deployed field operations.

Provide technical leadership throughout the entire product lifecycle, from concept development through production and sustaining engineering.
Investigate customer issues, manufacturing defects, and field failures, implementing corrective and preventive actions where required.
Evaluate component obsolescence risks and identify suitable replacement components while maintaining product performance and regulatory compliance.
Work closely with cross-functional teams including systems engineering, hardware, firmware, software, manufacturing, quality, supply chain, and customer support to deliver reliable, high-performance RF products on schedule.