Lead Radar Engineer, Mars Orbiter

At Relativity Space were building rockets to serve todays needs and tomorrows breakthroughs. OurTerran R vehicle will deliver customer payloads to orbit meeting the growing demand for launchcapacity. But thats just the start. Achieving commercial success with Terran R will unlock newopportunities to advance science exploration and innovation pioneering progress that reaches beyondthe known.

Joining Relativity means becoming part of something where autonomy ownership and impact exist at every level. Here youre not just executing tasks; youre solving problems that havent been solved before helping develop a rocket a factory and a business from the ground up. Whether youre in propulsion manufacturing software avionics or a corporate function youll collaborate across teams shape decisions and see your work come to life in record time. Relativity is a place where creativity and technical rigor go hand in hand and your voice will help define the stories were writing together. Nowis a unique moment in time where its early enough to leave your mark on the product the process andthe culture but far enough along that Terran R is tangible and picking up momentum. The mostmeaningful work of your career is waiting. Join us.

About the Team:

The Interplanetary Sciences Program was established to expand access to scientific exploration across our solar system. Its mission is to make planetary research faster more affordable and more capable than ever before by rethinking how science missions are designed built and operated. The program aims to enable scientists to send instruments to distant worlds without decades of development or prohibitive costs. By creating a sustainable model for interplanetary exploration we are transforming space science from an occasional event into a continuous process of discovery that accelerates knowledge broadens participation and inspires the next generation of explorers.

About the Role:

Youllbe the technical lead and responsible engineer for a wideband UHF shallow radar sounder for a Mars orbiter mission owning the instrument from design through spacecraft integration calibration and commissioning with no hand-off to another team mid-stream.

The instrumentoperatesin two modes: a sounder mode that measures subsurface layer reflections and a radiometer mode that measures the temperature of subsurface layers over a wide footprint.

This is a hybrid role: you will personally execute significant portions of the design and analysis while providing technical leadership working closely withour sciencepartners as their primary engineering counterpart. You will co-design the instrument against scienceobjectivesanddevelop theflight hardware and processing implementations.

• Own the system design for the radar electronics signal processing chain and antenna system at the vehicle level for both sounder and radiometer modes including instrument performance power and mass budgets link budgets and SNR/penetration-depth analyses
• Lead waveform trade studies in collaboration with the science partners implement the waveforms and baseline algorithms they develop and co-design with the science team to ensure the instrument meets science adequacy and mission science objectives
• Lead the hardware development including prototype development and validation at the brass board level ahead of flight designs
• Define the instrument calibration scheme for both radar and radiometer modes
• Coordinate hardware development across RF digital power and mechanical disciplines along with firmware and software development
• Lead instrument qualification and acceptance testing integration into the spacecraft and terrestrial analog flight testing including test integration and post-flight data review
• Perform spectrum licensing and frequency coordination for instrument operation andtesting andsupport instrument calibration and on-orbit commissioning

About You:

• 7 years of experience inelectrical hardware development such as software defined radios radar transceivers or sophisticated digital processors
• Demonstrated ability to develop and manage radar system performance budgets
• Experience withanalysisandmodeling of radar returns and radar performance
• Experience implementing radio or radar transceivers as software-defined radios
• Field testing flight testing or spaceflight experience with radio or radar transceivers
• Deep expertise in one or more of the following:
  • Implementation of signal processing chains in FPGA and/or GPU processing
  • Design of mixed-signal and digital PCBs such as software-defined radios or board-level FPGA designs
  • RF circuit design including power amplifiers low-noise amplifiers and filters
  • Antenna design and verification

Nice to haves but not required:

• Experience with microwave radiometry or radiometer instrument design
• Familiarity with planetary or terrestrial radars (e.g. SHARAD MARSIS RIMFAX ice-penetrating radar)
• Hands-on experience with AMD/Xilinx RFSoC or Zynq UltraScale platforms
• Experience with spectrum licensing and frequency coordination for experimental or space systems
• Experience with polarimetric radar and full-polarimetry calibration
• Experience taking RF payloads through PDR/CDR qualification and spacecraft integration

We are an equal opportunity employer and value diversity at our company. We do not discriminate on the basis of race religion color national origin gender sexual orientation age marital status veteran status or disability status.

If you need a reasonable accommodation please contact us at .

Please note: Relativity Space does not accept unsolicited resumes candidate profiles or referrals from recruitment agencies or search firms. Any unsolicited submission - via email our website social media or directly to an employee - will be deemed the property of Relativity Space and no fee will be owed absent a current fully executed agreement with Talent Acquisition that specifically authorizes submissions for the applicable role.