Gateway & Wi-Fi / RF Test Engineer

Position 1: Gateway & Wi-Fi / RF Test Engineer 

 

Location: Kalamazoo, MI  100% onsite

 

Salary: $80K per annum Benefits.

 

 

 

Overview 

 

The client's connected beds and stretchers carry an onboard Gateway module providing Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity between the device and the hospital network, backend servers, endpoints, and clinical applications. 

 

These devices operate in one of the most hostile RF environments: dense enterprise wireless deployments, heavy 2.4 GHz congestion, continuous roaming as beds move between floors and wings, and no tolerance for dropped clinical data. This role owns wireless verification of the Gateway — RF characterization, protocol and system-level connectivity testing, interoperability, and root-cause support when field issues are traced to the wireless stack. 

 

Responsibilities 

 

RF & PHY characterization 

 

Conducted and radiated RF test: transmit power, receive sensitivity, EVM, spectral mask, frequency accuracy, spurious emissions across supported bands and modulation schemes 

Characterize throughput and packet error rate against controlled attenuation; establish range and link-budget envelopes 

Operate and maintain RF infrastructure — shielded enclosures and chambers, programmable attenuator matrices, spectrum analyzers, vector signal analyzers and generators 

Protocol & system-level connectivity 

 

Verify association, authentication, and key exchange across WPA2/WPA3-Enterprise, 802.1X/EAP variants, certificate handling, and PSK modes 

Test roaming across access points including fast transition (802.11r/k/v), band steering, and roaming thresholds; characterize handoff latency and session continuity for a device physically moving through a facility 

Verify DHCP, DNS, IP stack behavior, reconnection after network loss, recovery from AP or backhaul outage 

Measure throughput, latency, jitter, packet loss under load, interference, and multi-client contention 

Test Bluetooth/BLE coexistence with Wi-Fi in the 2.4 GHz band 

Interoperability 

 

Execute interoperability matrices across enterprise infrastructure vendors (Cisco, Aruba/HPE, Meraki, Extreme, Juniper Mist) and across controller firmware revisions 

Build and maintain representative hospital-network test environments 

Debug & root cause 

 

Capture and analyze wireless traffic (Wireshark, dedicated 802.11 capture adapters, vendor sniffers) and correlate with device-side logs 

Reproduce field-reported connectivity issues in the lab, isolating between application, network stack, Wi-Fi driver, firmware, and RF layers 

Work with embedded firmware and driver teams on defect isolation and fix verification 

Automation 

 

Automate wireless test execution and data collection in Python — instrument control, AP configuration, traffic generation, log parsing, results reporting 

Interface with the device under test over CAN and serial for state control, telemetry, and log capture during wireless runs 

Contribute to regression suites so wireless verification runs repeatably 

Regulatory & standards support 

 

Support pre-compliance scanning and evidence generation for FCC / ISED / CE radio submissions 

Support coexistence testing and risk assessment per ANSI C63.27 and AAMI TIR69 

Produce protocols, reports, and traceability artifacts to design-control standards 

Required 

 

5 years Wi-Fi / RF test engineering on embedded or connected hardware 

802.11 depth: protocol-level knowledge of a/b/g/n/ac/ax — frame types, management/control/data flows, association and authentication state machines, rate adaptation, channel and bandwidth behavior 

RF instrumentation: spectrum analyzers, vector signal analyzers/generators, power meters, programmable attenuators, shielded chambers 

Security modes: WPA2/WPA3, 802.1X/EAP (PEAP, EAP-TLS), certificate-based enterprise authentication 

Traffic & capture: iPerf or comparable; Wireshark and 802.11 packet capture — able to read a capture and reach a conclusion from it 

Enterprise Wi-Fi: practical AP and controller configuration; RF planning, channel reuse, roaming design 

Python: automation-grade for instrument control, test orchestration, log and data analysis 

Embedded interfaces: CAN, serial console/UART for device control and log capture 

Able to work onsite in Kalamazoo for the full engagement 

Preferred 

 

Medical device experience — design controls, ISO 13485, IEC 62304, ISO 14971, IEC 60601-1-2 EMC 

AAMI TIR69 and ANSI C63.27 coexistence methodology 

Wi-Fi Alliance certification process 

Linux wireless stack — cfg80211/mac80211, driver and supplicant behavior, wpa_supplicant debugging (high value: client's field issues have historically traced to driver-layer behavior) 

Embedded Linux BSP exposure on custom hardware 

Bluetooth/BLE test experience 

CWNA/CWAP, CCNA Wireless, or equivalent 

Wireless devices deployed in hospital or high-density enterprise environments 

Screening note 

 

The standout candidate can move down the stack not just run a test plan and report pass/fail, but take a packet capture, correlate against driver logs, and articulate where in the stack the behavior originates. Screen on 802.11 protocol behavior, roaming and coexistence scenarios, packet capture interpretation, and RF measurement fundamentals.