CHIEF ENGINEER OF RF FRONT ENDS

Most RF engineers spend their careers implementing someone else’s architecture. In this role, you define it. At Bascom Hunter, the RF front ends you design go into aircraft, ground vehicles, and ships, and you’ll see your decisions fly, drive, and sail.

Summary

Bascom Hunter is hiring a Chief Engineer of RF Front Ends to lead the architecture and design of custom RF front ends for airborne, ground-vehicle, and shipboard defense platforms. You will be the senior technical authority for RF subsystems, from concept and trade studies through qualification and production. This position will be onsite in O’Fallon, MO

This is a hands-on leadership role. At our size, you will simulate, review layouts, and work at the bench alongside the team. With no separate systems engineering group, you will also own RF requirements, performance budgets, traceability, and verification strategy end to end.

Responsibilities

• Architecture and Requirements
  • Set the technical vision and architecture for RF front-end products and lead the trade studies behind them.
  • Define RF performance requirements and system budgets, including noise figure, gain, linearity, dynamic range, output power, phase noise, isolation, and spurious performance.
  • Evaluate emerging RF technologies, components, and packaging approaches to support product roadmaps and manage obsolescence.
• Design and Integration
  • Lead and contribute hands-on to RF and microwave circuit design, simulation, electromagnetic modeling, and layout.
  • Guide the design of RF modules, wideband receivers, transmit chains, and multichannel front ends within power, thermal, EMC, and packaging constraints.
  • Integrate RF front ends with antennas, frequency generation, DSP, and platform systems, and resolve issues such as spurs, coupling, oscillation, and desensitization.
• Verification and Qualification
  • Establish verification strategies and acceptance criteria, and approve test plans, test reports, and qualification evidence.
  • Lead lab characterization, environmental qualification, and root-cause investigations of RF performance issues.
• Leadership and Program Support
  • Serve as the final technical authority for RF front-end design decisions [clarify relationship to company Chief Engineer] and lead design and architecture reviews.
  • Mentor RF engineers and establish design guidelines, review criteria, and reusable design practices.
  • Partner with program managers on technical baselines, risk, and schedule, and support proposals and customer technical discussions.

Qualifications

Required

• U.S. citizenship and the ability to obtain or hold a DoD security clearance [specify level, e.g., Secret].
• Master’s or Ph.D. in Electrical, RF, or Microwave Engineering; a bachelor’s with extensive relevant experience may be considered.
• 15+ years in RF, microwave, or millimeter-wave hardware development, including receiver and transmitter design and end-to-end RF performance analysis.
• Proficiency with RF simulation tools (Keysight ADS, Cadence AWR, Ansys HFSS, or equivalent) and RF test equipment (network, spectrum, and noise figure analyzers).
• A track record of leading multidisciplinary teams, defining requirements, and taking hardware through qualification.

Preferred

• Microwave and millimeter-wave front ends [specify bands]; phased-array, multichannel, wideband, or high-dynamic-range architectures.
• RF packaging, thermal analysis, and EMC; production test and yield improvement.
• Background in radar, electronic warfare, SATCOM, or other defense and aerospace RF applications.

Why Bascom Hunter

• Real ownership of product architecture, from concept through production
• Short decision chains and direct exposure to customers and proposals
• Compensation: [salary range], plus [key benefits, e.g., health coverage, 401(k) match, PTO]

All positions at Bascom Hunter are subject to background investigations, including criminal history and identity checks.

Bascom Hunter is an equal opportunity employer. We recruit, employ, train, compensate, and promote without regard to race, religion, sex, color, national origin, age, gender identity, sexual orientation, marital status, disability, protected veteran status, or any other basis protected by applicable federal, state, and local law.