SME / Senior RF Modeling and Tools Engineer

SME / Senior RF Modeling and Tools Engineer

Job Location: Columbia, Maryland

Job Status: Full Time

Clearance: Secret

ASTRION/SEG supports the U.S. Navy and Missile Defense Agency (MDA) by performing trade studies, design prototyping, and analysis of radars, EO/IR sensors, seeker systems, electronic warfare systems, and weapon systems. We are seeking a senior RF signature modeling and tools engineer to lead the development, integration, verification, and delivery of RF signature models and analysis tools used in sensor, radar, electronic warfare, and weapon-system simulations. This role will translate RF physics and customer requirements into maintainable, production-quality software that accurately represents propagation, attenuation, time delay, Doppler, waveform interaction, and the superposition of multiple RF components at a sensor or victim receiver. As a SME, the engineer may work directly with customers and internal stakeholders, guide technical direction, and may lead a team of engineers and software developers.

The engineer will own the full lifecycle of new and existing modeling tools, including requirements, architecture, implementation, test, documentation, release, and sustainment. The ideal candidate has 15+ years of experience in RF systems engineering, RF signature modeling, signal processing, propagation modeling, and the development of software or simulation products that have been shipped to customers or fielded as part of an operational capability.

Required Skills:

• The candidate must be a U.S. citizen and have a background that would permit the U.S. Department of Defense to issue a Secret clearance.
• Candidates must possess a Master of Science degree in Electrical Engineering, Physics, Mathematics, Applied Mathematics, or a closely related technical discipline. A Ph.D. is highly desirable.
• Candidates must have 15+ years of professional experience in RF systems engineering, RF signature modeling, signal processing, propagation modeling, simulation, or a closely related field.
• Deep theoretical understanding of RF propagation, the superposition principle, Fourier transforms, convolution, and the relationship between time-domain and frequency-domain representations.
• Direct, hands-on experience developing production software and simulation tools in C/C++, Python, and MATLAB. Experience must include implementation and debugging, not only tool use, technical oversight, or requirements definition.
• Demonstrated experience using C/C++, Python, and MATLAB to develop and deliver actual shipped, fielded, or customer-accepted software or simulation products.
• Experience with software architecture, numerical implementation, verification and validation, test automation, technical documentation, source control, and release of engineering tools or simulation libraries.
• Strong communication, collaboration, and technical leadership skills, with the ability to explain complex RF concepts to engineers, customers, and program stakeholders.

Desired Skills and Experience:

• Experience developing RF signature models for emitters, targets, sensors, or weapon systems as a function of geometry, look angle, aspect, frequency, polarization, range, or operating mode.
• Detailed understanding of propagation effects such as free-space loss, atmospheric effects, multipath, terrain or platform masking, antenna patterns, time delay, Doppler, and frequency-dependent attenuation.
• Experience modeling coherent and incoherent superposition of multiple RF transmissions and constructing correlated RF scenes for multiple transmitters and receivers.
• Experience with complex I/Q and sampled RF or baseband data, instantaneous bandwidth and sample-rate differences, resampling, filtering, modulation, spectral analysis, and aliasing control.
• Strong digital signal processing background, including FFT/DFT methods, convolution and correlation, time-frequency analysis, pulse or waveform modeling, and numerical treatment of delay and Doppler.
• Experience creating reusable modeling tools, software libraries, APIs, waveform or signature data interfaces, and test utilities that integrate with larger radar, EW, sensor, or weapon-system simulations.
• Experience validating physics-based models against measured data, higher-fidelity simulations, analytical results, or system-level test cases, with clear error and uncertainty characterization.
• Experience with Linux development, CMake or comparable build systems, Git, automated regression testing, continuous integration, and software release processes.
• Experience with performance optimization, parallel processing, GPU or high-performance computing, or large-scale generation and management of RF signature data.
• Experience supporting U.S. Navy, MDA, or other Department of Defense sensor, radar, electronic warfare, seeker, or weapon-system programs.
• Experience leading technical teams, mentoring engineers, decomposing ambiguous customer needs, and presenting modeling results to technical and program leadership.