Senior Antenna Design Engineer - Satellite User Terminals

Team: Antenna Systems

Location: Arlington, TX

Commitment: Full-Time

Workplace Type: onsite

Salary:

What you will do:

 

Own user-terminal antenna designs from requirements and concept development through simulation, prototyping, validation, and production release. 

• Develop compact, low-profile, embedded, multiband, dual-band, or wideband antennas for satellite communication terminals. 

• Translate link-budget and system requirements into antenna specifications, including frequency coverage, realized gain, efficiency, polarization, axial ratio, radiation pattern, return loss, bandwidth, and coverage. 

• Perform antenna trade studies involving size, bandwidth, efficiency, gain, polarization, ground-plane dependence, terminal orientation, and installation constraints. 

• Design antenna radiators, feeds, matching networks, baluns, hybrids, polarization networks, and other passive RF structures. 

• Develop circularly polarized or linearly polarized antenna solutions based on system requirements. 

• Conduct full-wave electromagnetic simulations using Ansys HFSS, CST Studio Suite, Altair FEKO, or equivalent tools. 

• Integrate antennas with the terminal enclosure, PCB, ground structure, radome, cables, batteries, displays, processors, and other nearby electronics. 

• Evaluate detuning, blockage, user interaction, cable coupling, enclosure effects, manufacturing tolerances, and material-property variation. 

• Plan and perform antenna measurements using VNAs, anechoic chambers, near-field or far-field ranges, and over-the-air test systems. 

• Correlate simulation with measured performance and resolve discrepancies through structured, data-driven troubleshooting. 

• Support antenna tuning, design-for-manufacturing reviews, tolerance analysis, supplier interaction, and production validation. 

• Develop environmental verification plans addressing temperature, humidity, vibration, shock, outdoor exposure, and other applicable user-terminal conditions. 

• Document requirements, analyses, design decisions, test procedures, results, and technical risks. 

• Collaborate with RF front-end, modem, baseband, firmware, mechanical, thermal, test, manufacturing, regulatory, and systems teams. 

• Mentor engineers and help establish repeatable antenna design and verification practices. 

Required qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering, electromagnetics, applied physics, or a related field. 

• Typically 7 or more years of hands-on antenna design and development experience. 

• Demonstrated experience designing compact or electrically small antennas for size-constrained products. 

• Strong understanding of antenna theory, impedance matching, radiation patterns, polarization, efficiency, bandwidth, and near-field coupling. 

• Hands-on experience with at least one full-wave electromagnetic simulation tool, such as HFSS, CST, or FEKO. 

• Experience taking an antenna design from simulation through prototype fabrication and measured validation. 

• Experience operating VNAs and performing antenna-pattern, gain, efficiency, polarization, and return-loss measurements. 

• Ability to diagnose differences between predicted and measured antenna performance. 

• Experience integrating antennas into mechanically and electrically complex products. 

• Strong technical communication and cross-functional collaboration skills. 

• Strong knowledge and understanding of satellite communication systems, with the ability to derive detailed technical requirements from high-level objectives and system direction. 

Preferred qualifications:

• Experience with satellite communication terminals, IoT terminals, portable radios, GNSS, cellular, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, or other compact wireless products. 

• Experience with circularly polarized, dual-band, multiband, broadband, spiral, crossed-dipole, patch, helix, monopole, or inverted-F antennas. 

• Understanding of satellite link budgets, polarization mismatch, multipath, terminal orientation, and coverage requirements. 

• Experience with antenna matching and tuning in the presence of production tolerances and enclosure variation. 

• Familiarity with outdoor-terminal regulatory, EMC, RF-exposure, and environmental requirements. 

• Experience transferring antenna designs into medium- or high-volume production. 

• Phased-array antenna/RFFE experience is beneficial. 

Additional Requirements

This is a fast-paced, high-impact environment - flexibility to occasionally work extended hours or weekends during critical periods is expected.