Senior Antenna Engineer

Position Overview

As a Senior Antenna Engineer, you will lead the design, analysis, integration, and validation of antenna systems supporting Inversion's next-generation re-entry vehicles. You will work within the Avionics team to develop high-performance antenna solutions for flight and ground applications, owning antenna development from requirements capture and EM simulation through prototyping, installed performance evaluation, and mission-readiness testing.

This role is ideal for an experienced engineer with deep expertise in antenna design and electromagnetic analysis, and with strong judgment in translating system-level communication and vehicle constraints into robust antenna solutions. You will help develop critical hardware and systems for cutting-edge maneuverable reentry vehicles - advancing one of the most capable reentry vehicle platforms ever developed.

You will be a key member of the Avionics team, reporting directly to the Director of Engineering, Avionics. Our engineers are responsible for the complete lifecycle of the hardware they create, including design, analysis, prototyping, test, and integration.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead antenna design, simulation, and placement activities for flight and ground communication systems.
• Capture antenna requirements and perform supporting electromagnetic simulation and analysis to meet system-level performance needs.
• Develop antenna concepts and trade studies across gain, bandwidth, efficiency, polarization, impedance matching, size, placement, and environmental constraints.
• Model and predict antenna and vehicle-level RF performance using EM simulation tools and installed-performance analysis methods.
• Plan and execute antenna prototyping, tuning, and validation activities for component-level and integrated system testing.
• Perform antenna measurements including impedance, return loss, radiation pattern, gain, efficiency, and polarization using anechoic chamber, near-field, and far-field test methods.
• Support integration of antennas with RF front-end hardware, vehicle structures, radomes, thermal systems, and other avionics subsystems.
• Evaluate installation effects and recommend mitigation strategies for performance degradation due to vehicle geometry, nearby structures, radomes, thermal protection systems, or other environmental constraints.
• Partner closely with RF, electrical, mechanical, thermal, software, and systems engineering teams to ensure successful antenna implementation.
• Document requirements, design trades, simulation results, test data, and design recommendations.

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor's or Master's degree in Electrical Engineering, Physics, or a related technical field with RF/EM focus.
• 5+ years of professional experience in antenna design, EM simulation, and antenna integration.
• Strong R&D experience in RF and antenna systems.
• Deep knowledge of aperture antennas, impedance matching, Smith chart usage, polarization, bandwidth, and RF front-end interactions.
• Proficiency with antenna modeling and electromagnetic simulation tools such as HFSS, CST, FEKO, or similar.
• Experience with antenna prototyping methods and fabrication approaches.
• Experience with antenna measurement techniques including anechoic chamber, near-field, and far-field testing.
• Understanding of antenna integration effects on vehicle or platform performance.
• Familiarity with radomes, thermal/mechanical constraints, and embedded or conformal antenna design.
• Ability to perform trade studies for gain, bandwidth, efficiency, polarization, and antenna placement.
• Strong understanding of installed antenna performance, coupling effects, and interaction with surrounding structures.
• Ability to clearly communicate antenna design concepts and tradeoffs to multidisciplinary engineering teams.
• Must have the ability to obtain and maintain a U.S. government Secret/Top Secret security clearance.

Desired Qualifications

• Experience designing antennas for aerospace vehicles, spacecraft, missiles, aircraft, or other highly integrated platforms.
• Familiarity with S-band, L-band, or other telemetry and communications frequency bands relevant to flight systems.
• Experience with vehicle-level RF analysis and link budget support.
• Familiarity with antenna/RF system integration in harsh thermal, vibration, shock, EMI/EMC, and radiation environments.
• Experience with radome analysis, conformal antenna integration, or embedded antenna architectures.
• Familiarity with aerospace and defense qualification standards such as MIL-STD-461/810, DO-160, SMC-S-016, or similar frameworks.
• Experience developing custom analysis scripts or tools in Python or MATLAB to support EM post-processing, optimization, or test data reduction.
• Experience in startup environments or small, highly collaborative engineering teams.

Pay and benefits

Additionally: Staff-Level Consideration - We are also open to considering exceptional candidates for a Staff Antenna Engineer level. Staff-level candidates should possess all of the qualifications listed above, in addition to 8+ years of professional experience with demonstrated technical leadership in antenna system development for aerospace, defense, or other high-reliability applications. The Staff-level compensation range is $161,000 - $221,000.

Our office headquarters is located in Playa Vista, CA. This position requires in office presence.:

The California annual base salary for this role is currently $137,000 - $193,000. Pay Grades are determined by role, level, location, and alignment with market data. Individual pay will be determined on a case-by-case basis and may vary based on the following considerations: interviews and an assessment of several factors that are unique to each candidate, job-related skills, relevant education and experience, certifications, abilities of the candidate and internal equity.

ITAR Compliance

To conform to U.S. Government space technology export regulations, including the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) you must be a U.S. citizen, lawful permanent resident of the U.S., protected individual as defined by 8 U.S.C. 1324b(a)(3), or eligible to obtain the required authorizations from the U.S. Department of State. Learn more about the ITAR here.