RF Engineer

Department: Engineering

Location: San Francisco

Employment Type: FullTime

Specter is building a software-defined control plane for the physical world. Our mission is to protect and empower American businesses by granting them ubiquitous perception over their physical assets.

We’re creating a connected hardware–software ecosystem built on multi-modal wireless mesh sensing technology, driving down the cost and time of deploying sensors by 10×. Ultimately, Specter’s platform will serve as the perception engine for a company’s physical footprint - enabling real-time perimeter visibility and autonomous operations management.

Our founders, Xerxes Libsch and Philip Clark, are building a team of exceptional engineers from Anduril, Tesla, Uber, and the U.S. Special Forces who are redefining how machines sense and understand the physical world.

The Role

Specter is hiring a Lead RF Engineer to lead the design and development of our modular software-defined radio (SDR) architecture - the communications backbone for our distributed sensing network.

You’ll own end-to-end RF system design, from concept and architecture through prototyping, validation, and deployment. This includes architecting a scalable, high-bandwidth, long-range mesh communications layer connecting thousands of edge devices into a cohesive sensing fabric.

As the RF lead, you’ll define the company’s radio strategy, establish our RF lab and test infrastructure, and grow a small, elite team capable of taking designs from benchtop prototypes to production hardware.

Responsibilities

• Architect and develop Specter’s modular SDR platform, integrating multi-node mesh networking with real-time software control.

• Define RF system and software requirements across transceiver, front-end, and antenna subsystems.

• Lead system-level trades to determine optimal network topology, frequency bands, and modulation schemes within software-defined constraints.

• Design and prototype analog front-end components (LNAs, PAs, filters, matching networks) with tight integration to digital baseband and firmware.

• Develop automated RF test infrastructure and validation workflows (VNA, spectrum analyzer, OTA testing) with software-driven test harnesses.

• Collaborate with firmware, networking, and cloud teams to integrate PHY-layer and OpenWRT-based mesh protocols into the broader control plane.

• Drive DFM, certification, and production-scale RF test automation.
  

Preferred Background

• Led RF or communications system development from concept to production, including firmware and software integration.

• Deep experience with software-defined radios, analog/RF front-end design, and embedded networking systems (<3 GHz).

• Strong understanding of 802.11 physical layer protocols, OpenWRT, and real-time embedded Linux networking.

• Skilled with RF simulation and measurement tools (ADS, HFSS, MATLAB, VNA, spectrum analyzer) and software test automation.

• Experience bringing connected radio products through FCC certification, DVT, and production ramp.

• Hands-on, experimental mindset - fluent moving between low-level firmware, signal processing, and physical layer hardware.