RF Test Engineer

Vast is looking for an RF Test Engineer, reporting to the Staff RF Engineer, to develop and execute creative testing solutions for our complex RF and Antenna systems for our Orbiter and Haven programs. Your input will be vital in testing new and existing RF hardware to support the mission. This will be a full-time, exempt position located in our Long Beach location.

Responsibilities: 

• Perform hands-on testing of RF components and systems applying core RF test principles.
• Perform receiving inspections/checkouts of RF components from partner vendors.
• Perform RF testing at the system level during vehicle integration and pre-ship checkouts.
• Provide test results to other team members in concise and organized fashion.
• Design test fixtures for complex antenna and RF component test setups. 
• Design and build RF test racks for component and system level testing, automating the testing process where applicable. 
• Partner with manufacturing/integration engineers to develop work instructions and installation procedures for integrating and testing RF hardware. 
• Create root-cause test setups to ensure issues are understood and recreate on-orbit situations allowing continuous improvements to the RF systems.

Minimum Qualifications:

• Bachelor's Degree in electrical engineering or similar.
• 2+ years of experience with RF design, analysis, and/or unit level testing (significant academic projects, internships, and traditional professional experience all qualify).
• Experience with RF test equipment such as Spectrum Analyzers, VNAs, Power Meters, Cable Analyzers, SDRs, etc.

Preferred Skills & Experience:

• Comfortable communicating deeply technical topics to a wide variety of audiences.
• Ability to creatively solve problems and weigh against multi-disciplinary requirements together while assessing risk and making design and development decisions. 
• Familiarity with antenna measurement techniques and tools such as anechoic/reverb chambers, near field EM measurements.
• Extensive experience in using spectrum and vector network analyzers for RF testing and troubleshooting.
• Experience with GNU Radio and software-defined radios (SDRs).
• Understanding of RF schematics and RF electronics manufacturing to analyze and improve test capabilities.
• Experience with software programming: Matlab, LabVIEW, Python, C/C++, JS, etc.
• Experience with testing RF electronics for spaceflight environment, verifying workmanship and operability through environmental test (random vibration, shock, thermal, burn-in, and TVAC).

Additional Requirements:

• Ability to travel up to 20% travel to support launch campaigns.