RF Engineer

Job Description: RF Engineer Job Title: RF Engineer Location: San Francisco, Pittsburgh. Job Type: Full-time About Us: Swan delivers the future of defense and industry through scalable autonomous products. Swan is backed by leading defense VCs including a16z's American Dynamism fund. Role Overview: We are seeking an experienced RF Engineer to join our team. This role will support the development of an electronic warfare detection and mapping product through hands-on RF and SDR experimentation, rapidly building, testing, and refining sensing prototypes. The role emphasizes fast iteration, in-field testing, and fielding working prototypes—assembling and tuning RF front ends, executing disciplined data collections, and developing DSP workflows to detect and characterize emitters from raw I/Q data. Working closely with senior engineers and researchers, the engineer will translate ideas into practical experiments, validate performance with real-world data, document results, and help evolve reliable, deployable systems for complex RF environments. Responsibilities Build and iterate RF sensing prototypes for electronic warfare (EW) mapping experiments, including assembling and tuning receive chains (antenna filtering LNA/attenuation SDR) and validating performance through testing. Execute field-style data collections using SDR platforms (USRP-class preferred), improving measurement reliability and quality through practical iteration (gain staging, front-end behavior, timing and metadata discipline). Develop DSP workflows on raw I/Q data to detect and characterize signals of interest (time–frequency analysis, correlation/matched filtering, detection metrics, spectral features), with an emphasis on identifying and tracking emitters. Apply lightweight parameter estimation and modeling to convert measurements into interpretable outputs (e.g., power trends, signal presence probability), and identify failure modes driven by real-world propagation and receiver artifacts. Create simple, robust data tooling to support experimentation, including repeatable capture replay evaluation workflows. Collaborate closely with senior engineers and researchers to translate ideas into structured experiments, validate assumptions with real data, and clearly document results and lessons learned. Required Qualifications Bachelor’s degree (or equivalent experience) in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Physics, or a closely related field. Strong hands-on engineering mindset, including comfort building RF setups, swapping components, collecting measurements, and iterating until systems perform as expected. Foundational knowledge of digital signal processing, including several of the following: I/Q sampling fundamentals FFTs and spectrograms (STFT) basic filtering concepts correlation and matched filtering detection fundamentals (thresholding, false alarms, probability of detection) Prior exposure to SDR systems (coursework, internship, or personal projects), ideally using tools such as UHD, GNU Radio, SoapySDR, or Python-based SDR workflows, including experience capturing and interpreting spectrum and baseband data. Proficiency in Python (with willingness to work in C++ as needed) for analysis scripts, basic pipelines, and reproducible experimentation. Self-motivated and adaptable, with the ability to learn quickly, make progress independently, and ask thoughtful questions early. Preferred Qualifications Prior projects involving RF systems, such as: antennas, LNAs, filters, and gain staging diagnosing interference, spurs, compression/clipping familiarity with lab tools (spectrum analyzer, signal generator, VNA, oscilloscope) Exposure to navigation, estimation, or sensor fusion concepts (e.g., EKF fundamentals, uncertainty, coordinate frames). Interest in field experimentation, including drones/robotics platforms, sensor logging, multi-stream synchronization, and test planning. Experience with SIGINT, spectrum monitoring, or interference hunting (academic or personal is fine), particularly involving real over-the-air signals.