Senior RF Engineer

About the Team:

The Interplanetary Program was established to expand access to scientific exploration across our solar system. Its mission is to make planetary research faster, more affordable, and more capable than ever before by rethinking how science missions are designed, built, and operated. The program aims to enable scientists to send instruments to distant worlds without decades of development or prohibitive costs.

By creating a sustainable model for interplanetary exploration, we are transforming space science from an occasional event into a continuous process of discovery that accelerates knowledge, broadens participation, and inspires the next generation of explorers.

About the Role:

As an RF Engineer on Relativity’s Interplanetary Program, you will own the architecture, design, development, testing, and operation of next-generation high-reliability RF systems that enable deep-space communication, navigation, and science operations. You will work hands-on across the full lifecycle, from concept and link budgets, to working with ground stations (i.e. DSN, KSAT, etc.) through hardware bring-up, environmental qualification, integrated testing, and flight readiness.

This role partners tightly with avionics, optical comms, and spacecraft REs to ensure our RF subsystem integrates cleanly into the overall spacecraft bus. You will be responsible for solving engineering challenges that push the boundaries of RF technologies: designing for extreme distances measuring in AUs, low-SNR environments, radiation effects, and highly constrained mass/power budgets. This is a highly technical, hardware-first role in a scrappy, hands-on environment and team where iteration speed, analytical rigor, and end-to-end ownership of the problem space will be critical to the success of the mission.

About You:

• Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Physics, or a related field
• 5+ years of experience in RF communication system architecture, analysis, and/or component engineering
• Experience with 3 or more of the following:
• RF architecture & link budgets for challenging environments
• Selection, design, and/or integration of RF systems including transmitters, receivers, LNAs, PAs, frequency sources, converters, and front-end architecture.
• Selection and/or design of RF passive components such as filters, diplexers, couplers, and waveguide components
• Antenna design, analysis, and modeling tools
• Hands-on testing with RF lab equipment such as spectrum analyzers, VNAs, SDRs, power meters and data recorders
• Hands-on integrated testing with ground stations and/or integrated spacecraft RF systems to flow live telemetry and commanding
• Experience communicating deeply technical topics with individuals from different disciplines

Nice to haves but not required:

• Experience with space environments (radiation effects, thermal extremes, vacuum operation, component derating)
• Prior work with deep-space spacecraft comms system design & architecture
• Prior work with deep-space ground station networks
• Experience with high-gain antennas, phased arrays, or gimbaled antenna systems
• Experience designing or validating RF hardware for flight qualification (TVAC, vibe, EMI/EMC)

At 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! To see some of the benefits & perks we offer, please visit here.

Hiring Range: