Senior RF Design Engineer

Welcome to Planet. We believe in using space to help life on Earth.

Planet designs, builds, and operates the largest constellation of imaging satellites in history. This constellation delivers an unprecedented dataset of empirical information via a revolutionary cloud-based platform to authoritative figures in commercial, environmental, and humanitarian sectors. We are both a space company and data company all rolled into one.

Customers and users across the globe use Planet's data to develop new technologies, drive revenue, power research, and solve our world’s toughest obstacles.

As we control every component of hardware design, manufacturing, data processing, and software engineering, our office is a truly inspiring mix of experts from a variety of domains.

We have a people-centric approach toward culture and community and we strive to iterate in a way that puts our team members first and prepares our company for growth. Join Planet and be a part of our mission to change the way people see the world.

Planet is a global company with employees working remotely world wide and joining us from offices in San Francisco, Washington DC, Germany, and The Netherlands.

About the Role:  

Planet is working on the next generation small satellite bus that will host a high resolution optical imaging payload (Pelican) and a hyperspectral payload (Carbon Mapper). Planet has continuously iterated and developed small spacecraft communication systems including board level hardware, antennas, and ground station equipment that produce record data rates. Our system consists of transceivers in several bands, as well as a worldwide network of ground stations.  We are seeking an experienced RF and Microwave Engineer to develop our next-generation onboard, ground radios and antenna systems that push the frontiers of satellite communications. You will make evolutionary and revolutionary improvements in their performance, reliability and cost, including the design of next-generation S-band through Ka-band radios and a variety of antennas as well as work with vendors on various design projects. You will be responsible for PCB layout projects and interface with cross functional teams - electrical, software and mechanical engineers to address challenging design issues. You will conduct environmental and EMC testing on communication subsystems and get them ready for flight. You will work closely with systems engineering, missions, and manufacturing teams to ensure mission success.

This position will require the candidate to work up to 4 days a week at our headquarters in San Francisco, CA. 

Impact You’ll Own:

• RF/MW hardware transceiver and circuit design, simulation (Spice, ADS), instrumentation, test and characterization
• RF/MW system design, link budgets, and interference analysis
• EMI testing and mitigation
• Antenna design, simulation and testing (ADS, HFSS)
• Digital communications theory and associated signal processing algorithms for both narrowband and wideband data transmission systems
• Software Defined Radio (SDR) platforms and respective signal processing libraries (ex.: GNURadio)
• Validation and Verification of radios and antennas pre-shipment and validation of radio performance on orbit after satellite launch

What You Bring:

• BSEE is required, MS/PhD preferred
• 6+ years of engineering excellence designing and maturing RF & MW systems, transceivers, antennas and/or SDRs to market, ability to review low-level design decisions and understand their impact to the larger system/mission
• Strong fundamentals in RF/MW, electromagnetics, and signal processing
• Proven track record of supporting and criticizing RF layout, RF circuit design and component selection
• Ability to adapt and learn a multitude of skills in order to develop/contribute to the design of a complex system including but not limited to active RF circuits, transceivers, PLL synthesizers, mixers, switches, RF amplifiers, oscillators, detectors, filters, and other building blocks for space and ground station applications
• Excellent documentation, presentation and communication skills

What Makes You Stand Out:

• Experience with Altium or similar EDA tools, high-density PCB design, high speed clock trees
• Knowledge of digital communications theory and associated signal processing algorithms for both narrowband and wideband data transmission systems 
• Experience in Linux, Python, and data analysis tools
• Excited by working in an agile, fast-paced environment, even in times of uncertainty and ambiguity
• Understanding of cross-team dependencies including electrical, software, mechanical, thermal, structural, manufacturing and Space environmental