Lead RF Systems Engineer (Tactical Comms / SDR / DSP)

• Lead Architecture & Strategy: Architect, design, and implement advanced SDR and DSP solutions for terrestrial tactical radios (HF/VHF/UHF) in a Linux environment.
• Protocol & Waveform Reverse Engineering: Reverse engineer complex terrestrial COTS and proprietary RF devices to map transceiver logic, demodulate legacy/custom tactical waveforms, and extract framing parameters.
• Waveform Synthesis & Generation: Synthesize and generate custom tactical RF waveforms based on reverse-engineered signal parameters, including frequency-hopping, direct-sequence spread spectrum (DSSS), and low probability of intercept/detection (LPI/LPD) signals.
• Terrestrial Signal Processing: Develop algorithms to detect, identify, feature-extract, and decode captured complex tactical communications signals operating in harsh multipath and co-channel interference environments.
• Modulation & Transceiver Pipeline: Implement end-to-end transmit/receive signal chains using foundational and complex modulation schemes (e.g., FSK, PSK, QAM).
• Lab Leadership & Testing: Direct laboratory build-outs, select advanced SDR hardware and test gear, and execute field or lab-based RF experimentation to validate synthesized tactical signals.
• Domain Problem Solving: Solve high-level technical challenges across tactical communications, signal intelligence (SIGINT), spectrum management, and electronic warfare (EW/EA/EP) domains.
• Technical Mentorship & Expertise: Serve as a subject matter expert (SME) in HF/VHF/UHF propagation, signal generation, and DSP, guiding cross-functional teams in a rapid-prototyping environment.

What you will need (Basic Qualifications):

• Active DoD Top Secret clearance with SCI eligibility required
• 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.

Nice if you have (Preferred):

• Tactical Radio Protocols: 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).
• Propagation & Channel Modeling: Strong understanding of terrestrial RF phenomena, including ground-wave/sky-wave HF propagation, urban multipath fading, troposcatter, and Doppler spread mitigation.
• Advanced EW & Anti-Jamming: Experience with Electronic Warfare (EW) countermeasures, anti-jam (AJ) techniques, LPI/LPD waveform design, and adaptive filtering/interference mitigation.
• Firmware Analysis: Experience with reverse engineering tools like Ghidra, IDA Pro, or binary analysis frameworks for embedded tactical radio firmware.
• Communications Theory: Deep expertise in FEC (Convolutional, Turbo, LDPC), Viterbi/Reed-Solomon decoding, interleaving, frame synchronization, and equalization algorithms.