Senior Antenna Engineer Verified today

About Inversion

Inversion builds advanced reentry systems to deliver payloads anywhere on Earth in under an hour. Our spacecraft operate through extreme reentry conditions and land with high precision, turning Low-Earth Orbit into an on-demand logistics domain. We work with the U.S. Space Force, NASA, and leading investors including Y Combinator, Spark Capital, and Lockheed Martin Ventures.

What You'll Do

As Senior Antenna Engineer, you will lead antenna design, analysis, integration, and validation for next-generation reentry vehicles. You will own antenna development from requirements capture and EM simulation through prototyping, installed performance evaluation, and mission-readiness testing. You report directly to the Director of Engineering, Avionics.

You will be responsible for the complete lifecycle of antenna hardware, including design, analysis, prototyping, test, and integration.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead antenna design, simulation, and placement for flight and ground communication systems.
• Capture antenna requirements and perform electromagnetic simulation and analysis to meet system-level performance needs.
• Develop antenna concepts and trade studies across gain, bandwidth, efficiency, polarization, impedance matching, size, placement, and environmental constraints.
• Model and predict antenna and vehicle-level RF performance using EM simulation tools and installed-performance analysis methods.
• Plan and execute antenna prototyping, tuning, and validation activities for component and integrated system testing.
• Perform antenna measurements including impedance, return loss, radiation pattern, gain, efficiency, and polarization using anechoic chamber, near-field, and far-field test methods.
• Support integration of antennas with RF front-end hardware, vehicle structures, radomes, thermal systems, and other avionics subsystems.
• Evaluate installation effects and recommend mitigation strategies for performance degradation due to vehicle geometry, nearby structures, radomes, thermal protection systems, or environmental constraints.
• Partner closely with RF, electrical, mechanical, thermal, software, and systems engineering teams.
• Document requirements, design trades, simulation results, test data, and design recommendations.

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor's or Master's degree in Electrical Engineering, Physics, or related technical field with RF/EM focus.
• 5+ years of professional experience in antenna design, EM simulation, and antenna integration.
• Strong R&D experience in RF and antenna systems.
• Ability to obtain and maintain a U.S. security clearance up to Top Secret.
• Deep knowledge of aperture antennas, impedance matching, Smith chart usage, polarization, bandwidth, and RF front-end interactions.
• Proficiency with antenna modeling and electromagnetic simulation tools such as HFSS, CST, FEKO, or similar.
• Experience with antenna prototyping methods and fabrication approaches.
• Experience with antenna measurement techniques including anechoic chamber, near-field, and far-field testing.
• Understanding of antenna integration effects on vehicle or platform performance.
• Familiarity with radomes, thermal/mechanical constraints, and embedded or conformal antenna design.
• Ability to perform trade studies for gain, bandwidth, efficiency, polarization, and antenna placement.
• Strong understanding of installed antenna performance, coupling effects, and interaction with surrounding structures.
• Ability to clearly communicate antenna design concepts and tradeoffs to multidisciplinary engineering teams.

Desired Qualifications

• Experience designing antennas for aerospace vehicles, spacecraft, missiles, aircraft, or other highly integrated platforms.
• Familiarity with S-band, L-band, or other telemetry and communications frequency bands relevant to flight systems.
• Experience with vehicle-level RF analysis and link budget support.
• Familiarity with antenna/RF system integration in harsh thermal, vibration, shock, EMI/EMC, and radiation environments.
• Experience with radome analysis, conformal antenna integration, or embedded antenna architectures.
• Familiarity with aerospace and defense qualification standards such as MIL-STD-461/810, DO-160, SMC-S-016, or similar frameworks.
• Experience developing custom analysis scripts or tools in Python or MATLAB to support EM post-processing, optimization, or test data reduction.
• Experience in startup environments or small, highly collaborative engineering teams.

Staff-Level Consideration

Exceptional candidates may be considered for Staff Antenna Engineer level, requiring all above qualifications plus 8+ years of professional experience with demonstrated technical leadership in antenna system development for aerospace, defense, or other high-reliability applications. Staff-level compensation range: $161,000 to $221,000.

Compensation and Location

California annual base salary: $137,000 to $193,000. Pay is determined by role, level, location, and market data, with individual compensation based on interviews, job-related skills, relevant education and experience, certifications, and internal equity.

This position requires in-office presence at our headquarters in Playa Vista, CA.

ITAR Compliance

To conform to U.S. Government space technology export regulations, including the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR), you must be a U.S. citizen, lawful permanent resident of the U.S., protected individual as defined by 8 U.S.C. 1324b(a)(3), or eligible to obtain the required authorizations from the U.S. Department of State.