RF Electrical Engineer

About the role

Xona is the navigational intelligence company bringing real-time, centimeter-level certainty to any device, anywhere on Earth.

With Pulsar - the world’s most advanced PNT satellite infrastructure in Low Earth Orbit - Xona will offer a future-proof, backwards-compatible global positioning system optimized for absolute precision, superior power, and robust protection.

Overview

We're looking for an RF Electrical Engineer to take ownership of our spacecraft's TT&C (Telemetry, Tracking & Command) radios - the S-Band link that keeps our satellites talking to the ground.

You'll own this subsystem end to end: architecture, link budgets, PCB design, and the antenna interface, built to survive the harshest environment there is. This is a hands-on, cross-disciplinary role working directly with electrical, systems, mechanical, and software engineers to ship a critical piece of hardware that flies.

What You'll Own

• End-to-end design of the satellite's S-Band radio - schematic capture, PCB layout, and component selection, in close coordination with antenna design engineers
• Spacecraft radio link budgets across all mission phases
• EMI/EMC compliance and spaceflight reliability across the design
• Electrical and RF test/validation at unit, subsystem, and system level
• Hardware bring-up, debugging, and performance tuning in lab and flight environments

What You Bring

• B.S. in Electrical Engineering or related field (M.S. a plus)
• Hands-on experience with RF/electrical engineering, including PCB design with RF layout and routing
• Proficiency with RF/EM tools: HFSS, ADS, or MATLAB
• Working knowledge of EMI/EMC standards and practices (e.g., MIL-STD-461)
• Experience with digital interfaces relevant to radio integration (UART, SPI, I2C, Ethernet)
• Hands-on lab experience: oscilloscopes, network analyzers, signal generators
• Strong documentation habits and cross-functional communication

Strongly Preferred

• Experience designing RF/electronics for space or spacecraft systems
• Exposure to radiation-tolerant component selection and thermal/vacuum design constraints

Additional information

For U.S. Roles: To comply with U.S. Government space technology export regulations, applicant must be a U.S. citizen, lawful permanent resident of the United States (i.e. Green Card holder), or other protected individual as defined by 8 U.S.C. 1324b(a)(3).

For U.K. Roles: To comply with U.K. regulations, this role requires Baseline Personnel Security Standard (BPSS) checks, and successful candidates must be eligible to obtain UK Security Clearance (SC).

For Canada Roles: Successful candidates must obtain and hold a security clearance at the reliability status level, and pass security assessment for the Canadian Controlled Goods Program (CGP) and ITAR.