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Rocket Lab is seeking a Senior RF Phased Array Engineer II to lead the development of RF products and systems, including phased arrays, at their Long Beach headquarters. This is a technical leadership role within the Space Systems team, which has enabled over 1,700 missions ranging from interplanetary exploration to national security initiatives.
In this role, you will own end-to-end product development including architecture design, prototyping, integration, testing, and flight development. You'll model and simulate antenna and phased array performance, lead cross-functional teams of RF, digital, power, mechanical, thermal, and structural engineers, and transition developments from new product introduction to production. Key responsibilities include developing test plans for active antennas (EIRP and G/T measurements), designing ground support equipment and production automation, and creating technical documentation such as ICDs and user manuals.
You'll also support customer and program needs by driving proposals, assessing requirements compliance, scoping development activities, supporting engineering reviews (PDRs, CDRs, TRRs), and providing technical support for troubleshooting and anomaly resolution. You'll interface regularly with vendors and customers while maintaining awareness of product development and production schedules.
Required qualifications include a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering or RF communications with 8+ years of relevant experience. You must have fundamental RF knowledge including link budget analysis and linearity, solid understanding of RF communications and navigation systems, hands-on experience with antenna and phased array modeling/simulation, deep knowledge of interference effects on systems, and proven experience developing and delivering RF systems from requirements through space-worthy production.
Desirable qualifications include extensive space-grade system design experience, expertise in worst-case/reliability/FMECA/thermal/derating analyses, experience leading complex engineering programs, background designing RF systems for launch vehicles or satellites, demonstrated mentoring ability, incident management experience, and strong performance under pressure and tight deadlines.
