What are the responsibilities and job description for the Senior Microwave Antenna Engineer position at EVONA?
Senior Microwave Antenna Engineer
Durham, NC
We are working with an exciting rapidly growing space technology company that is developing a next-generation small synthetic aperture radar (SAR) satellite.
They are seeking a Microwave Antenna Engineer to lead the design, simulation, and deployment of advanced microwave antenna systems for satellite synthetic aperture radar (SAR).
The engineer will develop high-efficiency, electronically steerable metasurface antennas optimized for small satellites in low Earth orbit (LEO). The role emphasizes achieving low cost, size, weight, and power (CSWAP) characteristics, high performance beamforming, and seamless integration with RF and SAR subsystems.
Key Responsibilities:
- Design electronically steered metasurface antenna designs for X band SAR
- Simulate full antenna and subsystems to predict SAR payload performance
- Create printed circuit board (PCB) fabrication drawings and specifications for antenna test structures, subsystems, and overall antenna tiles.
- Lead antenna testing in anechoic environment, including antenna pattern and gain
- Assist with integrating antenna controls, satellite subsystems, RF subsystems, calibration routines, and SAR imaging modes/tasking
Required Qualifications:
- BS, MS, or PhD in in Electrical Engineering, Applied Physics, or related field
- Experience leading the design of designing and testing microwave antennas
- Strong understanding of electromagnetics, beamforming, and antenna array theory
- Experience with radio frequency (RF) and antenna components, vector network analyzers, gain measurements, and S-parameter characterization
- Software experience: CST/HFSS, Altium/ADS
- Spectrum experience: microwave (S band, C band, or X band)
Desirable Experience:
- Experience with reconfigurable, electronically steerable, or metasurface antennas
- Prior work on satellite systems, SAR payloads, or remote sensing missions
- Familiarity with deployable antenna structures
- Multi-physics simulation experience coupling RF, thermal, and mechanical effects
- Background in aerospace qualification testing (thermal-vacuum, vibration, etc.)
- Knowledge of link budget and system-level RF performance optimization
- Experience with high-power systems (>1 kW)
- X band radar systems (8 – 12 GHz)
Salary : $150,000 - $200,000