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RF Test Engineer Verified today

ICEYE · Valencia, Spain · RF & Comms · first seen 2026-10-15
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Role highlights

  • RF Test Engineer, Valencia
  • Reports to: Laboratory Lead & Test Architect
  • Permanent, Hybrid
  • Subject to applicable security screening (incl. SUPO, where required)

Why this role matters

As an RF Test Engineer, you'll capture real signals from real hardware and build the system that plays them back through a channel simulator. ICEYE is building a space-based RF constellation covering 100 MHz to 30 GHz alongside its SAR fleet. The Experimentation Lab in Valencia is where you'll develop, simulate and validate that capability.

Your processing, on the ground today and on board from Gen 2, is only as good as the signals you test it against. Today there are some synthetic I/Q, a few captures and a lot of assumptions. You'll help build a library of real emitter signals with known truth, plus a way to replay them as a satellite would hear them, with LEO Doppler, delay, path loss and interference, phase-coherently across several satellites at once.

You'll be one of the first engineers in the lab, with direct influence on how ICEYE builds and proves this capability.

Your day-to-day responsibilities

  • Capture real emissions: bring emitters into the lab (marine radars, AIS and ADS-B transponders, satcom terminals), operate them in a controlled screened setup, and record them at the right bandwidth, dynamic range and timing accuracy. Extend this to field and airborne collection.
  • Characterise captures: turn raw recordings into library entries with I/Q in a documented format (SigMF or equivalent), measured parameters (PRI, pulse width, scan, chirp, hopping, modulation), metadata and truth.
  • Build the generate and playback chain: specify, integrate and calibrate the RF record and playback system (SDRs, vector signal generators, arbitrary waveform generators and multi-channel playback), from a single emitter up to a dense scene.
  • Build the channel simulator path: apply per-satellite delay, Doppler, Doppler rate, path loss, multipath and interference to recorded and synthetic signals, phase-coherently across channels and driven by geometry from the simulation software.
  • Develop test hardware and software: fixtures, RF interconnect, switching, attenuation and calibration paths, plus Python code that controls and automates your instruments so every measurement runs as a script.
  • Feed the end-to-end loop: inject signals into the flatsat, receivers and processing chain, work with the simulation team so RF stimulus and simulated truth line up in time and frequency, and support algorithm validation campaigns.
  • Keep operations lawful and safe: work with the regulator, site safety and partners on screened operation, test identities and RF exposure limits for everything that transmits.

What we're looking for

Must haves:

  • Hands-on RF measurement and signal capture experience with spectrum and real-time signal analysers, vector signal generators, SDRs and oscilloscopes, and the judgement to spot a clipped, aliased or contaminated capture
  • Experience building or integrating an RF record and playback, signal generation or hardware-in-the-loop test system
  • Solid DSP fundamentals: sampling, I/Q, filtering, channelisation, Doppler and timing effects, and how each shows up in a recording
  • Python (or equivalent) for instrument control, automation and analysis, with comfort in SCPI/VISA and SDR APIs
  • Calibration discipline: reference planes, path loss and phase characterisation, and an uncertainty you can defend
  • Clear written and spoken English

Nice to haves:

  • Radar, ELINT, ESM or EW background, especially with pulsed and frequency-agile emitters
  • Experience with channel emulators or fading simulators (PROPSIM, Vertex) or a home-built equivalent, and satellite or LEO link simulation
  • Multi-channel phase-coherent systems, precision timing (GPSDO, PPS, White Rabbit) or TDOA/FDOA test
  • GNU Radio, MATLAB, UHD, VITA 49, SigMF
  • Microwave work above 18 GHz, anechoic and screened-room operation, EMC test
  • Field collection campaigns from masts, vehicles or aircraft
  • Eligibility for national security clearance

What success looks like

  • 6 months: your first lab emitters (marine radar, AIS) are captured, characterised and in the library with truth, and a playback path replays a capture into a receiver repeatably.
  • 12 months: multi-channel playback runs through a channel simulator driven by simulated geometry, supports at least one algorithm validation campaign, and your first field collection is complete.
  • 24 months: the processing teams use the library routinely, and a calibrated, automated stimulus chain is part of the end-to-end lab loop.

Application process

  • Application Screening
  • TA call
  • Hiring Manager call
  • Onsite interview