Sr Staff RF Development Engineer

The Sr Staff R&D Development Engineer serves as a recognized technical authority in radio frequency (RF), microwave, millimeter-wave, and high-speed interconnect technologies. This position provides strategic technical leadership that shapes product architectures, technology roadmaps, and long-term innovation initiatives across the organization.

The Sr Staff R&D Development Engineer leads the development of advanced RF test and measurement solutions through deep technical expertise, simulation-driven design, cross-functional influence, and engagement with customers and industry partners. This role leads highly complex initiatives with significant impact on product performance, business growth, customer success, and competitive differentiation.

Key Responsibilities:

Technical Leadership and Innovation

• Define and influence long-term technology strategies, product architectures, and technical roadmaps for RF and high-speed interconnect solutions.

• Serve as a recognized subject matter expert in RF design, electromagnetic modeling, calibration methodologies, measurement science, and high-speed interconnect technology.

• Lead the development of next-generation RF technologies, methodologies, and design practices that enable future product platforms and establish competitive advantages.

• Drive technical innovation through advanced simulation-driven design methodologies, modeling techniques, measurement approaches, and validation strategies.

• Establish technical standards, engineering methodologies, and best practices that are adopted across multiple product lines and engineering teams.

• Identify and solve exceptionally complex technical challenges for which solutions may be ambiguous, incomplete, or not previously established.

• Provide technical guidance and recommendations on major research and development investments, product strategies, and technology decisions.

Product and Technology Development

• Lead the architecture, design, modeling, development, and optimization of advanced RF and high-speed digital physical-layer interconnect structures and systems.

• Provide technical direction for the development and refinement of industry-leading RF calibration methodologies, including short-open-load (SOL), short-open-load-through (SOLT), short-open-load-reciprocal (SOLR), multiline thru-reflect-line (TRL), and emerging calibration approaches.

• Lead electromagnetic modeling, characterization, and validation activities to ensure product performance meets technical and customer requirements.

• Make critical technical decisions that influence product performance, system architecture, manufacturability, reliability, scalability, and business success.

• Ensure alignment among product capabilities, customer requirements, market trends, and long-term strategic objectives.

• Lead complex engineering tradeoff analyses involving electrical performance, risk, cost, manufacturability, reliability, and time-to-market.

• Develop and evaluate prototypes, test methods, experimental approaches, and proof-of-concept solutions for new technologies and product platforms.

• Guide products and technologies through the development lifecycle, including concept development, design validation, qualification, and transition to manufacturing.

RF Measurement and Validation

• Develop advanced RF measurement, calibration, de-embedding, and error-correction methodologies.

• Define measurement strategies and test system architectures for the characterization and validation of RF, microwave, millimeter-wave, and high-speed interconnect solutions.

• Apply advanced knowledge of vector network analyzers, spectrum analyzers, signal generators, power meters, and automated test systems.

• Analyze complex test and simulation data to identify performance limitations, correlations, design risks, and opportunities for improvement.

• Establish correlation methodologies among electromagnetic simulations, laboratory measurements, and production test results.

• Ensure measurement systems, calibration methods, and validation processes provide accurate, repeatable, and technically defensible results.

Customer and Market Leadership

• Engage directly with strategic customers, industry partners, and key stakeholders to understand emerging technical challenges and future market requirements.

• Translate complex customer test and measurement needs into technology strategies, product requirements, research initiatives, and development plans.

• Partner with Product Management, Marketing, Applications Engineering, and Sales to define market-leading product requirements and technology differentiation strategies.

• Represent the organization as a technical leader during customer engagements, executive discussions, technical reviews, and strategic planning activities.

• Build trusted technical relationships with customers by providing expert consultation and developing innovative solutions to complex application challenges.

• Evaluate market and technology trends to identify new product opportunities, technical risks, and areas for strategic investment.

Cross-Functional Leadership

• Lead highly complex, cross-functional development initiatives involving electrical, mechanical, process, product, manufacturing, software, and applications engineering.

• Influence organizational decisions beyond immediate project responsibilities through technical expertise, business insight, and strategic recommendations.

• Drive alignment across multiple engineering disciplines to optimize product performance, reliability, scalability, manufacturability, and customer value.

• Provide technical leadership throughout design reviews, architecture reviews, risk assessments, failure analyses, and product readiness activities.

• Build strong technical partnerships with suppliers, research institutions, industry experts, standards organizations, and strategic development partners.

• Lead technical assessments, supplier evaluations, and technology partnership activities.

• Communicate technical risks, recommendations, and development priorities to engineering teams and organizational leadership.

Organizational and Industry Impact

• Identify, evaluate, and lead the adoption of emerging technologies that advance organizational capabilities and strengthen market leadership.

• Influence technology direction across multiple products, platforms, or business areas.

• Mentor senior engineers and technical leaders, supporting technical development, knowledge transfer, and organizational succession planning.

• Promote engineering excellence through technical reviews, internal training, documentation, and the development of reusable engineering methodologies.

• Provide technical thought leadership through patents, publications, conference presentations, technical papers, and contributions to industry standards.

• Serve as a technical ambassador for the organization at industry forums, technical conferences, customer events, and standards activities.

• Protect organizational intellectual property by identifying inventions, supporting patent development, and maintaining appropriate technical documentation.

• Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering, Physics, or a related technical discipline, or equivalent advanced technical experience.

• Extensive experience in RF, microwave, millimeter-wave, high-speed digital interconnect, or related test and measurement technologies.

• Demonstrated success leading highly complex technical programs and influencing technology direction across multiple products, platforms, or business areas.

• Proven experience developing innovative RF or high-speed interconnect solutions with significant customer, product, market, or business impact.

• Demonstrated experience working across engineering disciplines to develop and commercialize complex technical products.

• Advanced research or equivalent industry expertise with deep specialization in RF, microwave, millimeter-wave, or high-speed digital interconnect technologies.

• Experience within semiconductor test, wafer sort, package test, advanced packaging, or related applications.

• Demonstrated history of technical innovation through patents, publications, conference presentations, standards contributions, or other forms of industry recognition.

• Expert-level proficiency with electromagnetic simulation, RF design, and modeling tools such as HFSS, ADS, Sigrity, AWR, or related platforms.

• Deep expertise in RF calibration methodologies, measurement science, de-embedding, error-correction techniques, and test system architecture.

• Advanced knowledge of RF and microwave measurement equipment, including vector network analyzers, spectrum analyzers, signal generators, power meters, and automated test systems.

• Strong expertise in RF PCB design, signal integrity, electromagnetic compatibility, controlled impedance, and high-speed interconnect design practices.

• Advanced understanding of electromagnetic theory, transmission line behavior, impedance matching, insertion loss, return loss, crosstalk, resonances, and signal degradation.

• Ability to correlate simulation results with laboratory measurements and use findings to improve models, designs, calibration methods, and product performance.

• Strong understanding of design for manufacturability, product reliability, technical risk management, and the transition of advanced technologies into production.

• Ability to solve exceptionally complex technical problems where requirements may be incomplete and established solutions may not exist.