Valkyrie Dynamics

Antenna / RF Front-End Engineer (Contract)

About the Role

You'll design the antenna and RF front-end at the heart of a counter-UAV radar sensor — radiating elements, arrays, and feed networks — taking them from concept through EM simulation to measured validation. This is a contract engagement, so you'll need to work independently and contribute quickly. We care most about breadth across antenna design methods on a master's-level foundation; senior experience is a strong plus. You'll have access to high-end measurement facilities — including anechoic-chamber time in Kyiv (paid travel) — to characterize and iterate on real hardware, not just simulate. This is a key role to ensure our first launch cements our reputation in the industry  - make your mark with Valkyrie!

What You'll Do

• Design and optimize antenna elements and arrays — single-element and phased-array — for mmWave operation
• Evaluate tradeoffs across frequency bands and packaging: select the band and topology that best balance range, resolution, aperture size, and environmental performance for a given sensing requirement
• Design corporate-fed and series-fed feed networks for phased-array and MIMO systems, controlling amplitude/phase distribution to hit beamforming, sidelobe, and radiation-pattern targets
• Prototype and compare integration approaches — substrate-integrated waveguide (SIW), launch-in-package, and alternatives — to find the best fit for compact integration
• Model and optimize performance — gain, beamwidth, sidelobe level, VSWR/S11, mutual coupling, scan range, grating-lobe behavior — against sensing requirements
• Design MIMO arrays for multi-channel sensing: element spacing, channel isolation, and virtual-aperture formation for angular resolution
• Validate designs on the bench (VNA, anechoic/OTA range), correlating measured results against simulation and documenting deviations
• Work directly with the DSP and radar-systems engineers we're hiring in parallel — antenna, signal processing, and architecture designed together, not in isolation. You'll have real influence over the system design, not just your own slice
• Design to the RF front-end architecture — channel count, transceiver interface, phase coherence — and feed antenna feasibility back as the system evolves
• Prepare finished antenna and feed-network designs for handoff: specify antenna-critical constraints and review layout through bring-up

Required Qualifications 

• Master's in Electrical Engineering, Microwave/RF Engineering, or a closely related field — or equivalent hands-on antenna design experience with the skills below. PhD a plus
• Prior work on radar or RF sensing systems, not communications-only antenna work
• Hands-on experience across multiple antenna design methodologies: SIW, launch-in-package, phased arrays, MIMO systems, series-fed and corporate-fed networks. Breadth here matters more to us than years
• Strong feed-network fundamentals: power dividers, phase shifters, impedance matching, loss/isolation and beam-squint tradeoffs
• MATLAB/Simulink for array-factor synthesis, pattern analysis, and beamforming/system-level modeling (e.g. Antenna and Phased Array System Toolboxes)
• A track record of carrying designs from concept through simulation, prototyping, and measurement validation — not simulation alone.
• Proficiency with EM simulation software (HFSS, CST Microwave Studio, or equivalent)

Preferred / Bonus

• Working knowledge of multilayer PCB constraints (stackup, manufacturability) — enough to hand off cleanly to a PCB engineer

Engagement Details

• Type: Contract / consulting
• Rate: [TBD]
• Duration: [TBD]
• Location: Remote/Hybrid
  • Hybrid: Temporary travel to Kyiv for on-site testing, heavily preferred (expenses paid) — primarily anechoic-chamber characterization of candidate designs, with possible field testing.
• Long-term: Strong performance could lead to an ongoing or permanent role.
• Start: ASAP

About the Role

We've already proven the concept of a counter-UAV radar sensor with a first-generation prototype. This role owns the redesign that carries those lessons into a production-grade sensor, architected from requirements up, with the systems planning to do it right. You'll also own the system architecture, from the waveform, detection strategy to the system-level requirements and budgets that define it. You'll drive the RF chain and transceiver architecture hand-in-hand with the antenna engineer, converging on what's actually feasible to build while setting the DSP chain direction. Your success is our success - make your mark with Valkyrie Dynamics.

What You’ll Do

• Own the radar waveform and detection strategy
  • Chirp/FMCW design
  • Range-Doppler processing detection budgets (SNR, integration, CFAR)
  • Angle estimation to detect small, low-RCS UAV targets at high closing velocity
• Define and maintain the system-level requirements and budgets
  • Detection range, range/Doppler/angular resolution, update rate, power, thermal, and size
  • Write verifiable requirements so that meeting them validates the sensor
• Evaluate approaches across the integration spectrum, cascaded transceiver ICs, an integrated system-on-module, or a discrete RF front-end
  • Collaborate with the antenna engineer on a viable solution for channel count, LO/clock distribution, and phase-coherence strategy across the array
• Own and control the interfaces between subsystems
  • Ensure end-to-end signal chain from antenna to detection output holds together as one coherent system including:
    • Timing and synchronization (frame/trigger)
    • Transceiver-to-compute data path (sample rates, formats, latency/throughput)
    • RF/antenna boundary
• Own and continuously evolve the system model — effectively a digital twin of the sensor. During the evolution:
  • Maintain ICDs
  • Meet and manage performance metrics
  • Grow model fidelity over time, introducing the non-idealities and non-linearities that matter as complexity increases (phase noise, PA compression, quantization, channel mismatch, mutual coupling), and trace observed behavior back to the origin.
• Collaborate with the DSP engineer on the waveform and detection design
  • You lead the strategy, they own the implementation and pressure-test it for compute load, memory, and timeline — until the architecture is both performant and buildable
• Converge the open architecture questions to decisions on a schedule
  • Committing with the evidence available, revisiting only when new data (a budget, a measurement) actually changes the answer

Required Qualifications

• Radar systems you’ve architected and shipped end-to-end — from waveform and detection through the RF chain
• Strong grounding in radar detection theory
  • FMCW/chirp waveforms, range-Doppler processing, CFAR and SNR/integration, and angle estimation
  • Target-tracking fluency to set the requirements (update rate, track accuracy)
• Hands-on MATLAB for system-level radar modeling (Radar Toolbox) — you’ve built and evolved system models, not just read their output
• Track record personally owning and closing the quantitative budgets 
  • Link and detection budgets above all — and holding the design to them
• RF chain architecture experience with multi-channel/MIMO transceivers and the coherence challenges of scaling channel count, from LO/clock distribution to phase alignment across the array
• Able to work independently on a contract basis
• Must pass company security procedures
• Must communicate effectively in English

Preferred / Bonus

• Counter-UAV or defense radar experience specifically — small, low-RCS, maneuvering targets in cluttered environments
• Hands-on experience with integrated radar transceiver SoCs including integration tradeoffs they bring
• MATLAB Simulink

Engagement Details

• Type: Contract-to-permanent position
  • Starts as a contract engagement with an explicit track to a permanent lead role for the right candidate
• Rate: [TBD]
• Duration: [TBD]
• Location: Remote/Hybrid
   
  • Hybrid: Must be able to temporary travel to Kyiv for on-site testing is heavily preferred (all expenses paid) — system bring-up and field validation against real targets, correlating measured performance against the model.

NOTE: We are currently in the process of getting authorized to provide reservation from mobilization