Director of Engineering

Director of Hardware Engineering - Spaceborne Radar Systems

Location: Seattle, WA

Salary: up to $275,000 Gross Per Annum + Company Equity + RSU Options

About the Company

You'll join a venture-backed space technology company breaking new ground in geospatial intelligence. Technology centers on a proven, scalable electronically-steered radar for spaceborne applications, including earth observation via synthetic aperture radar (SAR), and advanced defense missions such as ground and air target tracking.

This is an amazing opportunity to work on novel and extremely interesting technology pushing the boundaries of Geospatial Intelligence as we know it today.

About the Role

As Director of Hardware Engineering, you'll lead the design, development, qualification, and deployment of our scalable, electronically-steered radar for advanced spaceborne ISR missions.

You'll own hardware system architecture across RF/antenna systems, high-speed digital, mixed-signal electronics, power electronics, and mechanical/thermal packaging. Directing full lifecycle execution from requirements and architecture through detailed design, prototype build, environmental/radiation/EMI-EMC qualification, manufacturing introduction, and spacecraft integration.

Day to day, you'll:

• Define hardware system architecture for electronically-steered radar subsystems, including antennas, RF front-ends, power electronics, and embedded processing hardware


• Own hardware V&V and TRL-advancement strategy — signal/power integrity analysis, reliability modeling, and environmental testing (thermal, vibration, shock, vacuum, EMI/EMC, radiation)


• Partner closely with systems engineering, software/firmware, GNC, payload/instrument, and operations for coherent hardware-software delivery


• Work with the Program Management Office to manage schedules, budgets, risk mitigation, and resource plans against mission performance and reliability targets


• Drive manufacturability, cost efficiency, and quality through DFX principles, leading NPI hand-off to production partners


• Recruit, hire, manage, and mentor a cross-disciplinary engineering team, building a culture of ownership and innovation


• Serve as a key technical interface to customers, suppliers, and subcontractors throughout the product development lifecycle

You'll have real ownership here, not just technical sign-off, but the mandate to build the team and the hardware program together, on a mission-critical system moving at a fast, early-stage pace.

Requirements to Be Successful

• A BS, MS, or PhD in Physics, Electrical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, or an equivalent discipline


• Significant experience developing mission-critical hardware for space and/or defense environments


• Significant experience as a principal-level individual contributor within multi-disciplinary teams delivering complex spaceborne hardware


• 10+ years leading and managing engineering teams across hardware disciplines


• Technical depth in RF/microwave, antenna systems, radar, high-speed digital and mixed-signal electronics, and power electronics


• Experience with PCB design, EMI/EMC practices, and mechanical/thermal packaging for high-reliability hardware


• Proven success qualifying hardware for environmental and radiation conditions, and supporting spacecraft or field deployments


• A demonstrated understanding of program planning, budget control, schedule execution, risk management, and cross-functional resource management

It's a bonus if you also bring experience with electronically-steered or phased-array radar systems (beam-steering, calibration, space reliability), space-qualified component engineering and radiation-tolerant design, RF/antenna and signal/power integrity modeling tools, qualification testing to standards such as SMC-S-016, GSFC-STD-7000, or MIL-STD-461, defense contracting or ISR/target-tracking radar missions, or experience scaling hardware manufacturing and managing global suppliers and subcontractors.

This role requires U.S. citizenship, lawful permanent residency, or refugee/asylee status, and eligibility to obtain and hold an active U.S. DoD Top Secret/SCI security clearance.