Gateway & Wi-Fi / RF Test Engineer

Job Description:

Gateway & Wi-Fi / RF Test Engineer

Kalamazoo, MI

100% onsite

Immediate start

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.

Required Skills:

• 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.

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

Preferred Skills:

• 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.