Senior RF Geolocation & Direction Finding Engineer - Locate Emitters Through Heavy Multipath
Tampa, FL | On-site
Opportunity Summary
Join an early-stage defense technology company building RF sensing and electronic warfare systems for demanding operational environments. The team is adding a localization capability that must pinpoint wireless devices operating inside dense indoor facilities, where signals bounce off concrete walls and steel structures and it is hard to tell a direct path from a reflection. You will own that capability, applying time and frequency difference-of-arrival techniques, multipath mitigation, and sensor fusion on real hardware in real buildings. This is a role for someone who has already worked through these problems on the receiver side and can apply that experience from day one.
You will be part of a newly formed team of four to five engineers chartered to deliver a V0 of a new distributed RF sensing product in roughly 90 days. The team starts from a short list of functional goals rather than a fixed requirements document, has a dedicated development budget, and decides for itself how to get there. Expect weekly development spins, with new PCB revisions ordered at the end of most weeks. Iterations are engineer-driven: if you see a way to make your design better, you make the call and the respin gets built.
About Us
We are a venture-backed defense technology startup founded by former Army officers with frontline electronic warfare and cyber experience. The company builds spectrum-control systems that detect, disrupt, mask, and manage wireless signals, and designs its receive, compute, and transmit boards, firmware, and software in-house down to the component level. Systems are already fielded with Army and special operations users, defense programs are advancing toward production, and a new commercial sensing product line is entering large-scale deployment. The team of roughly 15 is growing quickly ahead of its next funding round.
Job Duties
- Own the localization architecture for a distributed RF sensing network deployed inside complex indoor facilities
- Develop TDOA and FDOA localization using precisely timestamped detections across multiple sensing nodes
- Develop multipath and non-line-of-sight mitigation for reflective concrete and steel environments
- Evaluate where angle-of-arrival and hybrid approaches add value, and fuse measurements across nodes and techniques
- Create timing, synchronization, and calibration error budgets and translate them into hardware requirements
- Work with RF hardware and FPGA engineers on receiver channels, timestamping, antenna placement, and processing partitioning
- Build tracking for moving, intermittent, and burst-mode emitters across cellular, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and other protocols
- Develop confidence metrics and uncertainty estimates for reported device locations
- Use captured RF data for simulation and playback, then validate on live systems
- Plan and run field tests in representative facilities and quantify accuracy, coverage, and failure modes
- Feed field results back into node placement, timing, antenna, and system architecture
Qualifications
- BS or MS in Electrical Engineering, Applied Physics, Signal Processing, or a related field
- 5+ years in RF geolocation, direction finding, wireless or in-building localization, cellular network planning, radar, or closely related work
- Hands-on experience implementing time and/or frequency difference-of-arrival localization on real receiver hardware
- Proven experience solving multipath, reflection, and non-line-of-sight problems in indoor or urban environments
- Experience validating localization performance with field measurements rather than simulation alone
- Strong foundation in estimation theory, timing and synchronization, and emitter tracking
- Proficiency with Python and C++, plus MATLAB or similar tools for algorithm prototyping
- Comfortable working directly with RF hardware, captured IQ data, and lab test equipment
- U.S. citizenship required, with the ability to obtain and maintain a security clearance
- Comfortable turning broad goals into your own plan and delivering on weekly iteration cycles with minimal top-down direction
- Able to work on-site in Tampa, FL
Preferred Experience
- Telecom or wireless infrastructure experience with handset or receiver location in buildings
- Background in SIGINT, electronic warfare, direction finding, or spectrum monitoring
- Experience with UWB, RTLS, cellular localization, or distributed sensor networks
- Precision timing experience with PTP, White Rabbit, or GPS-disciplined oscillators
- Antenna array, beamforming, MUSIC, or ESPRIT experience
- Kalman filtering, particle filtering, or Bayesian tracking
- Defense experience is not required; telecom and commercial wireless backgrounds are equally valued
Why Join Us
- Build a core localization capability the company does not yet have and own its architecture
- Solve hard indoor RF problems where textbook approaches fall short, and prove the answer in real buildings
- Dedicated development budget, so the team is not forced to cut corners to hit the schedule
- Weekly build, test, and iterate cycles where engineers decide when a design needs another spin
- Optional travel to field exercises, new equipment training, and customer demonstrations for those who want it; no one is required to travel
- Health, dental, and vision coverage with employer-subsidized premiums
- 401(k) with company match, available from day one
- Unlimited PTO with no accrual period
- Streamlined hiring process: one recruiter conversation and one virtual technical interview with the team you would join
- Join at an early stage with significant ownership and long-term growth as the company scales
Compensation Details
$120,000 - $150,000