Senior Engineering Manager, RF Hardware

At CesiumAstro, we are developers and pioneers of out-of-the-box communication systems for satellites, UAVs, launch vehicles, and other space and airborne platforms. We take pride in our dynamic and cross-functional work environment, which allows us to learn, develop, and engage across our organization. If you are looking for hands-on, interactive, and autonomous work, CesiumAstro is the place for you. We are actively seeking passionate, collaborative, energetic, and forward-thinking individuals to join our team.

CesiumAstro is seeking an Engineering Manager, RF Hardware to lead a growing team developing high-performance electronics for our communications systems, including phased arrays, beamforming networks, RF front-ends, and software-defined radios. You will be accountable for the technical quality and on-time delivery of your team's hardware, from architecture and design through production.

This is a deeply technical management role, but not an individual-contributor design role. You will stay close to the engineering through technical guidance, design and architecture reviews, mentorship, and critical debug, while building a team that consistently produces excellent work. You will also help establish the standards, tools, processes, and reusable engineering approaches that allow CesiumAstro's hardware teams to execute rigorously and efficiently across sites.

WHAT SUCCESS LOOKS LIKE

• Your team delivers high-quality, manufacturable hardware to our product lines predictably and on schedule. Accountability does not stop when prototypes work: designs transition successfully into repeatable production at the required scale, with technical and manufacturing risks identified and addressed early.
• Engineering quality improves as the organization grows. You stay close enough to the technical details to identify weaknesses, mentor engineers through them, and turn lessons learned into better standards, tools, reviews, and processes.
• Teams benefit from shared engineering practices and technical knowledge across CesiumAstro. Engineers reuse proven components, designs, and approaches where appropriate, while common processes and standards enable rigorous engineering without unnecessary bureaucracy.
• You build a stronger engineering organization, not just successful individual programs. Engineers grow in technical judgment and responsibility, strong technical and people leaders emerge, and the organization develops the capability and leadership structure needed to scale.
• The initial team will include approximately 8-12 direct reports, primarily in Austin and Westminster, with a smaller presence in El Segundo. As CesiumAstro grows, people management is expected to become increasingly site-focused while this role continues to provide technical and process leadership across the company.

JOB DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

• Maintain technical integrity and engineering excellence for board-level RF electronics development across the company.
• Establish, mature, and scale engineer-friendly RF hardware development processes, including signal chain design and analysis, simulation, and schematic and layout standards for dense, high-layer-count PCBs.
• Provide detailed technical review and mentorship through architecture and design reviews, identifying design risks and errors early, helping engineers develop stronger engineering judgment, and ensuring appropriate subject matter expert (SME) engagement across digital, RF, power, firmware, and mechanical disciplines.
• Occasionally contribute directly to RF designs, particularly to close temporary gaps in high-risk or schedule-critical programs.
• Lead or support complex debug efforts involving RF electronics and related technical topics.
• Ensure RF hardware designs are buildable and testable at scale using DFM and DFT best practices.
• Drive disciplined handoff from engineering to manufacturing through close collaboration with manufacturing engineering, supply chain, and production test engineering.
• Ensure designs meet quality, reliability, and scalability requirements for aerospace and defense production environments.
• Partner with Supply Chain to ensure component availability, lifecycle risk mitigation, and cost awareness.
• Drive design reuse, modular architectures, and platform commonality across products to accelerate execution and reduce risk.

TEAM LEADERSHIP, STAFFING & PERFORMANCE RESPONSIBILITIES

• Build, scale, and lead a high-performing RF hardware engineering team that delivers reliably to multidisciplinary product teams.
• Lead, coach, and develop an initial team of approximately 8-12 engineers distributed primarily across Austin and Westminster, with a smaller presence in El Segundo.
• Partner with product and program leadership to plan work, allocate resources, surface technical risk early, and hold the team accountable to realistic delivery commitments.
• Own staffing and team development, including hiring, performance management, career development, coaching, and succession planning.
• Provide one-on-one coaching, mentoring, and deep technical guidance.
• Plan and manage budgets related to staffing, lab equipment, capital equipment, and design/simulation software.
• Maintain strong working relationships across Engineering, Quality, and Operations.

JOB REQUIREMENTS AND MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS

• Bachelor's degree or higher in Electrical Engineering required.
• Minimum of 9 years of direct board-level RF hardware engineering experience, preferably in aerospace environments. 2-5 years of small-team technical leadership or engineering management experience preferred but not required.
• Demonstrated deep expertise in RF board design, including strong working knowledge of the digital and power electronics required to make an RF board come alive.
• Experience supporting design for manufacturability (DFM), design for test (DFT), and transition from development to production.
• Proven ability to conduct rigorous technical reviews, mentor engineers, and communicate effectively across disciplines.
• Ability to balance rigor with execution speed in a fast-paced development environment.
• Proficiency with RF simulation and analysis tools such as Pathwave System Design (SystemVue) and RF Synthesis (Genesys) and HFSS.
• Deep hands-on experience with schematic capture and PCB layout tools such as Altium.
• Strong technical and non-technical communication skills.

CesiumAstro considers several factors when extending an offer, including but not limited to, the role and associated responsibilities, a candidate's work experience, education/training, and key skills. Full-time employment offers include company stock options and a generous benefits package including health, dental, vision, HSA, FSA, life, disability and retirement plans.

CesiumAstro is an Equal Opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, disability, protected Veteran Status, or any other characteristic protected by applicable federal, state, or local law.

Please note: CesiumAstro does not accept unsolicited resumes from contract agencies or search firms. Any unsolicited resumes submitted to our website or to CesiumAstro team members will be considered property of CesiumAstro, and we will not be obligated to pay any referral fees.

We may use artificial intelligence (AI) tools to support parts of the hiring process, such as reviewing applications, analyzing resumes, or assessing responses and identifying potential inconsistencies or verification signals in application materials based on available information. These tools assist our recruitment team but do not replace human judgment. Final hiring decisions are ultimately made by humans. If you would like more information about how your data is processed, please contact us.