About this role
Salary: £? - ? per year
Requirements
- Bachelors or Masters degree in Electronic Engineering, Telecommunications, or a related discipline
- Minimum 5 years industrial experience in RF/microwave hardware development
- Proven experience designing, developing, and testing active RF circuits and systems
- Strong understanding of RF system analysis, including RF line-up analysis, link budget calculations, linearity, intermodulation, EVM, transmitter performance, noise figure, SNR, BER, receiver sensitivity, phase noise, and frequency synthesis
- Hands-on experience with RF measurements, testing, and debugging
- Experience taking engineering solutions from initial requirements through design and implementation
- Ability to work independently on complex technical challenges with limited supervision
- Strong analytical and problem-solving skills
- Excellent communication and teamwork abilities
- Desirable: experience in aerospace, defence, or space communication systems, particularly mission-critical RF applications
- Desirable: experience with telemetry, telecommand, and satellite communication systems
- Desirable: experience with Software Defined Radio (SDR) and digital communication architectures
- Desirable: experience with RF system lifecycle management and qualification processes, including EMI/EMC and environmental testing
- Desirable: experience with FPGA-based radio architectures and high-speed digital interfaces
- Desirable: experience participating in formal engineering design reviews, including SRR, PDR, CDR, and TRR
- Desirable: experience taking technical ownership of designs from initial development through integration and final delivery
- Desirable: experience working within multidisciplinary engineering teams and structured product development environments
- We require candidates to hold a UK or NATO country passport and have unrestricted right to work in the UK
- Our vetting process includes a right-to-work check, drug screen, full 5 years referencing, and a DBS check
Responsibilities
- Design and develop RF hardware for communication systems operating from UHF through to Ka Band, supporting telemetry, telecommand, and datalink applications
- Design active RF circuits, including low-noise amplifiers (LNAs), solid-state power amplifiers (SSPAs), driver amplifiers, mixers, frequency converters, frequency synthesizers, and phase-locked loops (PLLs)
- Undertake RF architecture trade-offs, link budget calculations, gain/noise analysis, linearity assessments, and dynamic range calculations
- Develop RF schematics, select components, and support PCB layout activities
- Perform RF simulations using tools such as AWR, ADS, CST, HFSS, and MATLAB
- Conduct RF testing, measurement, and troubleshooting using VNAs, spectrum analysers, signal generators, power meters, oscilloscopes, and noise figure analysers
- Support environmental and qualification testing, including EMI/EMC, thermal vacuum, vibration, and shock testing
- Investigate and resolve RF performance issues throughout development, integration, and production
- Produce technical documentation, including design reports, test procedures, verification reports, and design review documentation
- Support Product Owners and Project Engineers in achieving technical milestones and delivering engineering solutions
- Participate in customer technical discussions and formal engineering design reviews
Technologies
- FPGA
- Hardware
- Support
- Matlab
More
We are recruiting two Senior Advanced Wireless / RF Engineers to join an innovative engineering team supporting a major international satellite quantum communications programme. In this contract role, you will work on QKDSat (Satellite Quantum Programme), contributing to advanced RF hardware and communication systems for secure, next-generation satellite communications, with technical ownership of complex engineering challenges. The position is fully onsite in Edinburgh for an initial six months, with an expected extension of up to 12 months and potential permanent opportunities to be confirmed.
Pay is £35.90 per hour PAYE only, plus 12.07% holiday pay. Hours are 37.5 per week, Monday to Friday: 8:15 am–5:00 pm Monday to Thursday and 8:15 am–1:00 pm Friday. We are a recruitment agency. If applicants do not hear from us within 14 days, they should assume their application has been unsuccessful.
last updated 46 week of 2026