Lead Radar Instrument Engineer

Relativity Space Job OpportunityAt Relativity Space, we're building rockets to serve today's needs and tomorrow's breakthroughs. Our Terran R vehicle will deliver customer payloads to orbit, meeting the growing demand for launch capacity. But that's just the start. Achieving commercial success with Terran R will unlock new opportunities to advance science, exploration, and innovation, pioneering progress that reaches beyond the known.Joining Relativity means becoming part of something where autonomy, ownership, and impact exist at every level. Here, you're not just executing tasks; you're solving problems that haven't been solved before, helping develop a rocket, a factory, and a business from the ground up. Whether you're in propulsion, manufacturing, software, avionics, or a corporate function, you'll collaborate across teams, shape decisions, and see your work come to life in record time. Relativity is a place where creativity and technical rigor go hand in hand, and your voice will help define the stories we're writing together. Now is a unique moment in time where it's early enough to leave your mark on the product, the process, and the culture, but far enough along that Terran R is tangible and picking up momentum. The most meaningful work of your career is waiting. Join us.About the RoleYou'll be the technical lead and responsible engineer for a wideband UHF shallow radar sounder for a Mars orbiter mission, owning the instrument from design through spacecraft integration, calibration, and commissioning.The instrument operates in two modes: a sounder mode that measures subsurface layer reflections and a radiometer mode that measures the temperature of subsurface layers over a wide footprint.This is a hybrid role: you will personally execute significant portions of the design and analysis while providing technical leadership, working closely with our science partners as their primary engineering counterpart. You will co-design the instrument against science objectives and develop the flight hardware and processing implementations.Own the system design for the radar electronics, signal processing chain, and antenna system at the vehicle level for both sounder and radiometer modes, including instrument performance, power, and mass budgets, link budgets, and SNR/penetration-depth analysesLead waveform trade studies in collaboration with the science partners, implement the waveforms and baseline algorithms they develop, and co-design with the science team to ensure the instrument meets science adequacy and mission science objectivesLead the hardware development, including prototype development and validation at the brass board level ahead of flight designsDefine the instrument calibration scheme for both radar and radiometer modesCoordinate hardware development across RF, digital, power, and mechanical disciplines, along with firmware and software developmentLead instrument qualification and acceptance testing, integration into the spacecraft, and terrestrial analog flight testing, including test integration and post-flight data reviewPerform spectrum licensing and frequency coordination for instrument operation and testing and support instrument calibration and on-orbit commissioningAbout You7+ years of experience in electrical hardware development, such as software defined radios, radar transceivers, or sophisticated digital processorsDemonstrated ability to develop and manage radar system performance budgetsExperience with analysis and modeling of radar returns and radar performanceExperience implementing radio or radar transceivers as software-defined radiosField testing, flight testing, or spaceflight experience with radio or radar transceiversDeep expertise in one or more of the following: Implementation of signal processing chains in FPGA and/or GPU processingDesign of mixed-signal and digital PCBs, such as software-defined radios or board-level FPGA designsRF circuit design, including power amplifiers, low-noise amplifiers, and filtersAntenna design and verificationNice to haves but not required:Experience with microwave radiometry or radiometer instrument designFamiliarity with planetary or terrestrial radars (e.g., SHARAD, MARSIS, RIMFAX, ice-penetrating radar)Hands-on experience with AMD/Xilinx RFSoC or Zynq UltraScale+ platformsExperience with spectrum licensing and frequency coordination for experimental or space systemsExperience with polarimetric radar and full-polarimetry calibrationExperience taking RF payloads through PDR/CDR, qualification, and spacecraft integrationAt Relativity Space, we are committed to transparency and fairness in our compensation practices. Actual compensation will be determined based on experience, qualifications, and other job-related factors.

Compensation is only one part of our total rewards package. Relativity Space offers competitive salary and equity, a generous PTO and sick leave policy, parental leave, an annual learning and development stipend, and more!Hiring Range:$175,000 —$263,000 USDWe are an equal opportunity employer and value diversity at our company. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status.If you need a reasonable accommodation, please contact us at