{"id":525213,"url":"https://alion.io/job/kaptaspace-director-radar-payloads","title":"Director – Radar Payloads","company":{"id":10355,"name":"Kaptaspace","domain":"kaptaspace.com","url":"https://alion.io/company/kaptaspace","size_band":"51-200","is_staffing_agency":false,"employer_type":"direct","is_intermediary":false,"listed_via":null,"ats_vendor":"Lever","truth_index":null},"role":"Hardware","role_family":"Hardware","seniority":"head","employment_type":"full_time","work_mode":"on_site","remote_scope":null,"remote_scope_basis":null,"remote_working_hours":null,"hiring_geo_confidence":"structured","locations":["Redmond, United States"],"countries":["US"],"hiring_countries":[],"hiring_countries_total":0,"salary":{"min":215000,"max":275000,"currency":"USD","period":"year","gross":null,"usd_annual":275000},"salary_estimate":null,"experience_years_min":10,"visa_sponsorship":false,"relocation_package":false,"has_equity":false,"technologies":[{"name":"Verification & Validation","optional":false},{"name":"MIL-STD-461","optional":true}],"status":"live","first_seen_at":"2026-08-25T21:55:48Z","employer_posted_date":"2026-08-25","last_verified_at":"2026-11-01T03:32:16Z","board_verified":true,"closed_at":null,"days_open":67,"trust":{"level":"ok","repost_count":null,"flags":[],"days_open":67},"description":"Kapta is seeking a Director - Radar Payloads to own end-to-end development and delivery of Kapta's spaceborne electronically-steered radar payloads. This leader directs multidisciplinary teams spanning RF/microwave, antennas, digital/FPGA, firmware/software, power, mechanical/thermal, systems, AI&T, and manufacturing. The Director is accountable for technical performance, cost, schedule, risk, qualification, spacecraft integration, and delivery, and is a key interface to customers, suppliers, partners, and program leadership. This role requires a hands-on leader who drives rapid technical decisions and execution in a fast-paced environment.\nThe ideal candidate will demonstrate the ability to apply advanced technical principles, theories, and concepts, and will have the drive and discipline to complete projects independently and on time. Kapta Space recognizes that strong candidates come from diverse backgrounds; if you bring relevant experience and the capacity to grow into this role, we encourage you to apply.\nRole\nOwn radar payload architecture and technical baseline across the electronically-steered aperture, RF front-ends, digital/FPGA processing, timing, power, thermal/mechanical, and control electronics.\nLead full payload lifecycle execution from requirements and architecture through design reviews, prototype builds, qualification/acceptance, AI&T, spacecraft integration, and on-orbit checkout.\nRecruit, lead, and mentor a multidisciplinary payload team; set priorities, staffing, technical ownership, expectations, and a culture of accountability and innovation.\nPartner with Systems Engineering, radar algorithms, software/firmware, GNC, spacecraft, manufacturing, quality, supply chain, and operations to achieve mission-level performance.\nOwn payload V&V, calibration, and flight-readiness strategy, including RF/beam performance, timing, reliability, environmental qualification, and end-to-end radar testing.\nWith the Program Management Office, own integrated plans, budgets, schedules, technical milestones, risks/opportunities, and recovery actions to meet cost, schedule, and performance commitments.\nDrive manufacturability, testability, reliability, cost, and production readiness; lead the transition from prototype builds to repeatable manufacturing and acceptance testing.\nServe as the payload technical focal point for customers, suppliers, subcontractors, spacecraft partners, and test facilities; lead reviews, trades, issue resolution, and supplier performance. \nRequired Qualifications\nBS in Electrical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, Physics, or a related STEM discipline; MS or PhD preferred.\n10+ years of experience developing complex RF, radar, communications, or space payload hardware, including flight or mission-critical systems.\nDemonstrated experience as a senior/principal technical leader owning the architecture and delivery of complex multidisciplinary payload or RF systems through major lifecycle milestones.\n6+ years of engineering leadership/management experience leading multidisciplinary teams, including staffing, mentoring, performance management, and execution accountability.\nDeep technical expertise in radar system architecture and performance, RF/microwave systems, electronically-steered/phased-array antennas, RF front-ends, high-speed digital/FPGA processing, mixed-signal electronics, timing/synchronization, and power electronics.\nStrong system-level understanding of embedded firmware/software, PCB design, signal/power integrity, EMI/EMC, mechanical/thermal design, and spacecraft electrical/mechanical interfaces.\nProven success taking complex flight hardware from architecture and design through integration, environmental qualification, acceptance testing, manufacturing handoff, and spacecraft/field deployment.\nDemonstrated ownership of technical performance, cost, schedule, risk, resource planning, supplier execution, and cross-functional delivery for complex engineering programs.\nExcellent communication skills, with ability to clearly present technical findings and collaborate effectively across engineering functions.\nEligible to obtain and maintain an active U.S. Top Secret/SCI security clearance\nBonus if candidates have experience and skills in the following areas:\nExperience with electronically-steered or phased-array radar systems, including beam-steering, calibration approaches and general space reliability.\nFamiliarity with space-qualified component selection, radiation-tolerant design, COTS-to-space qualification, reliability engineering, and fault-tolerant payload architectures.\nFamiliarity with radar system modeling and simulation, RF/antenna tools, radar/link budgets, signal-processing performance analysis, and thermal/structural analyses.\nExperience planning and executing qualification and acceptance programs for space hardware and familiarity with applicable standards such as SMC-S-016, GSFC-STD-7000, and MIL-STD-461.\nExperience in defense contracting environments or ISR/target-tracking radar missions.\nPrior work in small, fast-iteration aerospace teams.\nConcerned you do not meet all the requirements? Not a problem - please apply even if you do not meet all these criteria.","description_format":"text","description_chars":5204,"description_truncated":false,"requirements":{"experience_years_min":10,"management_years_min":6,"team_size_min":null,"manages_managers":false,"education":{"level":"bachelor","optional":true},"security_clearance":true,"languages":[]},"benefits":[],"hiring_locations":[],"hiring_excludes":[],"relocation_offered":false,"industries":["Space & Aerospace","Geospatial Analytics"],"lifecycle":[{"event":"open","at":"2026-09-08T04:51:08Z"}],"visa":[],"liveness":{"score":7,"band":"cold","label":"Long shot","p_open":0.4,"p_active":0.502,"p_room":0.35,"age_days":66,"expected_fill_days":30,"reasons":["seen:66","win:tail"],"computed_at":"2026-10-31T05:58:55Z"},"pay":{"stated_usd_annual":275000,"is_top_pay":false},"html_url":"https://alion.io/job/kaptaspace-director-radar-payloads","json_url":"https://alion.io/job/kaptaspace-director-radar-payloads.json","meta":{"generated_at":"2026-11-01T05:11:27Z","cache_seconds":300,"methodology":"https://alion.io/methodology","terms":"https://alion.io/terms","contact":"https://alion.io/contact","api":"https://alion.io/developers","about":"Alion is a live layer of people, companies and AI agents: who they are, whether they are real and active right now, what they do and how to work with them, readable by people and by agents and paid per call.","catalog":"https://alion.io/catalog.json","usage":{"tier":"crawler_verified","counted_by":"address","units_charged":1,"used_today":8060,"day_limit":null,"remaining_today":null,"minute_limit":300,"resets_at":"2026-11-02T00:00:00Z"}},"offers":[{"id":"company.slices","title":"One company in depth, by slice","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.02,"usd":0.002,"plus_per_slice":{"credits":0.05,"usd":0.005}},"unit":"per company, plus each slice with data","note":"the employer in depth","call":{"mcp_tool":"get_company","arguments":{"id":10355},"rest":"https://alion.io/mcp/rest/get_company?id=10355"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.slices&for=job%2Fkaptaspace-director-radar-payloads"},{"id":"market.stats","title":"A market slice: pay, demand and time to fill","status":"live","price":{"credits":1,"usd":0.1},"unit":"per slice","note":"pay, demand and time to fill for this role and place","call":{"mcp_tool":"market_stats"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=market.stats&for=job%2Fkaptaspace-director-radar-payloads"},{"id":"job.search","title":"Open jobs by role, technology, place, pay and visa","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.02,"usd":0.002},"unit":"per posting in a list","note":"similar open postings","call":{"mcp_tool":"search_jobs"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=job.search&for=job%2Fkaptaspace-director-radar-payloads"},{"id":"company.verify","title":"Is this company real and active right now","status":"pilot","price":null,"unit":"per company","request":{"url":"https://alion.io/catalog/request","method":"POST","body":"{\"offer\": \"company.verify\", \"for\": \"job/kaptaspace-director-radar-payloads\", \"note\": \"what you need it for\"}"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.verify&for=job%2Fkaptaspace-director-radar-payloads"}],"agent":{"mcp":"https://alion.io/mcp/jobs","mcp_open":"https://alion.io/mcp/open","next":[{"tool":"get_job","arguments":{"id":525213}},{"tool":"search_jobs","arguments":{"company":"kaptaspace.com","detail":"compact"}},{"tool":"match_people","arguments":{"job_id":525213},"note":"people open to offers who fit this vacancy"}],"note":"The same data through MCP tools: https://alion.io/mcp/open needs no sign-in (compact searches, postings, people); https://alion.io/mcp with an Alion account has everything. Docs: https://alion.io/developers"}}