Lead RF Systems Engineer (Tactical Comms / SDR / DSP)
$178,018–$267,027 year
On-siteHerndon, Virginia, United States
Job Summary
Architect, design, and implement advanced SDR and DSP solutions for terrestrial tactical radios operating in HF, VHF, and UHF bands. Reverse engineer complex COTS and proprietary RF devices to map transceiver logic, demodulate legacy tactical waveforms, and extract framing parameters. Synthesize custom RF waveforms including frequency-hopping, DSSS, and LPI/LPD signals, while developing algorithms to detect and decode captured communications in harsh interference environments. Implement end-to-end transmit/receive signal chains using foundational and complex modulation schemes, and direct laboratory build-outs to validate synthesized signals. Serve as a subject matter expert guiding cross-functional teams in rapid prototyping and solving high-level technical challenges across tactical communications and electronic warfare domains.
Required Qualifications
- Active DoD Top Secret clearance with SCI eligibility
- Degree in Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Mathematics, Physics, Computer Science, or equivalent practical, military, or intelligence community experience
- Minimum 8 years of hands-on experience in Digital Signal Processing (DSP), Software Defined Radio (SDR), and RF communications development (including technical lead/architecture roles)
- Deep knowledge of terrestrial RF communications systems, channel dynamics, and signal structures across the HF, VHF, and UHF bands
- Extensive experience in RF reverse engineering, signal parameter estimation, protocol disassembly, and target waveform regeneration
- Proven track record architecting software-driven DSP pipelines (C++, Python, GNU Radio, or REDHAWK) with an emphasis on real-time signal processing
Desired Qualifications
- Familiarity with modern military and public safety tactical radio standards, waveforms, and networking protocols (e.g., MIL-STD-188-110, STANAG, SINCGARS, HAVE QUICK, P25, MANET/mesh networking)
- Strong understanding of terrestrial RF phenomena, including ground-wave/sky-wave HF propagation, urban multipath fading, troposcatter, and Doppler spread mitigation
- Experience with Electronic Warfare (EW) countermeasures, anti-jam (AJ) techniques, LPI/LPD waveform design, and adaptive filtering/interference mitigation
- Experience with reverse engineering tools like Ghidra, IDA Pro, or binary analysis frameworks for embedded tactical radio firmware
- Deep expertise in FEC (Convolutional, Turbo, LDPC), Viterbi/Reed-Solomon decoding, interleaving, frame synchronization, and equalization algorithms
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