RF/Microwave Design Engineer

CPI Satcom & Antenna Technologies designs and manufactures high-reliability satellite communications electronics in State College, Pennsylvania. Our products support demanding commercial, government, and defense communications systems around the world.

We are seeking an experienced RF/Microwave Design Engineer who can both develop advanced RF hardware and lead focused engineering development projects. This is a hands-on technical role for an engineer who can analyze, simulate, build, test, and improve RF products while guiding a small, multidisciplinary project team toward a successful result. You will remain directly involved in the design work. Depending on the assignment, they may also serve as the technical lead for engineers, designers, technicians, and other contributors assigned to the project. This includes translating requirements into a practical development plan, establishing priorities, coordinating work, driving technical decisions, managing risks, and maintaining accountability for the overall technical result.

We value agility and measurable progress. Successful engineers move quickly from requirements to models, experiments, and working hardware. They break complex developments into manageable increments, test the highest-risk assumptions early, learn from results, and lead the team through rapid, disciplined iteration.

Modern engineering tools are central to this role. We expect engineers to combine RF simulation, electromagnetic modeling, scripting, data analysis, automated testing, and AI-assisted workflows to work faster and make better-informed decisions - while remaining accountable for validating the result through sound engineering judgment and physical measurements.

What You’ll Do

Design and develop RF hardware

• Design and develop RF and microwave products, including: Solid-state power amplifiers, Low-noise amplifiers, upconverters and downconverters, filters, matching networks, and other RF assemblies
• Translate customer and product requirements into practical architectures, performance budgets, block diagrams, interface definitions, and verification plans.
• Evaluate RF components, semiconductor devices, materials, and circuit topologies.
• Perform linear, nonlinear, noise, thermal, and system-level analyses.
• Use RF circuit and electromagnetic simulation tools to predict and optimize performance.
• Remain personally engaged in analysis, laboratory testing, design decisions, and problem resolution.

Lead engineering development projects

• Serve as technical lead for small, multidisciplinary product-development teams.
• Establish a clear technical approach, development plan, responsibilities, near-term priorities, milestones, and verification strategy.
• Break complex projects into manageable increments that produce measurable technical progress.
• Identify the highest-risk technical assumptions and organize early analyses, prototypes, or experiments to resolve them.
• Coordinate the work of engineers, designers, technicians, manufacturing personnel, suppliers, and other contributors.
• Make or drive timely technical decisions while matching the level of analysis to the importance and reversibility of the decision.
• Maintain visibility of requirements, interfaces, dependencies, risks, decisions, and open technical issues.
• Monitor progress against commitments and take action when work is blocked or results differ from expectations.
• Communicate status, risks, resource needs, and recovery plans clearly and early.
• Maintain accountability for the integrated design and the overall technical result - not only an individual portion of the work.
• Support design reviews, customer discussions, supplier interactions, and transitions into manufacturing.

Apply modern engineering methods

• Apply Python, MATLAB, or similar tools to automate calculations, analyze test data, compare alternatives, control test equipment, and document results.
• Use company-approved AI tools to accelerate research, modeling, coding, troubleshooting, test-data analysis, planning, and technical documentation.
• Critically review simulation, scripted, and AI-generated results for errors, inappropriate assumptions, and physical plausibility.
• Validate important results using independent calculations, trusted references, simulation comparisons, experiments, and measurements.
• Promote reusable calculations, automated workflows, documented test methods, and effective knowledge sharing within the team.
• Work in short development cycles: model, build, measure, learn, and improve.

Minimum Qualifications

• B.S. or M.S. in Electrical Engineering or a closely related field.
• At least five years of relevant RF or microwave engineering experience.
• Demonstrated experience designing, building, testing, and improving RF or microwave circuitry.
• Experience leading a technical development project, significant work package, or small multidisciplinary engineering team.
• Demonstrated ability to organize technical work, coordinate contributors, resolve problems, and drive a development toward a measurable result.
• Working knowledge of:
• RF system cascade and performance-budget analysis
• Linear and nonlinear RF behavior
• Noise figure and gain analysis
• Transmission lines, impedance matching, and printed RF structures
• Microstrip and coplanar-waveguide design
• RF PCB layout and construction
• Design for manufacturability
• Hands-on experience with RF test equipment such as vector network analyzers, spectrum analyzers, signal generators, power meters, and noise-figure measurement systems.
• Ability to independently investigate engineering problems and turn analysis into practical hardware improvements.
• Ability to communicate requirements, priorities, decisions, risks, and technical results clearly to both technical and nontechnical stakeholders.
• Strong technical documentation and organizational skills.
• Willingness to collaborate, share knowledge, develop other team members, and continuously learn new tools and methods.
• Excellent communication skills

How We Work

We are looking for an engineer who:

• Is a capable RF designer first and a credible technical leader of the overall project.
• Takes ownership of both personal technical work and the combined result produced by the project team.
• Creates clarity early when requirements, responsibilities, or priorities are uncertain.
• Has a bias toward action, experimentation, and incremental progress.
• Uses models and experiments to replace assumptions and risks with evidence.
• Tests critical uncertainties early enough for the results to influence the design.
• Selects the right level of analysis for the decision being made.
• Drives decisions and resolves obstacles without waiting for every uncertainty to disappear.
• Embraces modern tools while remaining accountable for the accuracy and physical validity of the result.
• Communicates openly when progress, requirements, resources, results, or risks are unclear.
• Helps team members work effectively together and holds contributors accountable in a constructive manner.
• Enjoys learning, mentoring, and contributing within a collaborative engineering organization.

This role offers the opportunity to perform challenging RF design work, lead meaningful product developments, broaden both technical and leadership experience, and directly influence satellite communications products used around the world.

SHAPING THE FUTURE THROUGH INNOVATION AND DISCOVERY!

With a history spanning more than seven decades, Communications & Power Industries’ thousands of products have impacted people’s lives in numerous unseen ways every day. Our highly engineered products serve as the backbone of modern-day commercial and military communications systems, assist in diagnosing medical conditions, empower scientific discoveries and space exploration, and much more.

CPI is headquartered in Plano, Texas and is a global manufacturer of electronic components and subsystems. We have manufacturing locations in the United States, Canada, Europe, and Asia. With a heritage of technological excellence, our team serves customers in the communications, defense, medical, industrial, and scientific markets.

WHAT WE OFFER:

Whether you are a seasoned professional or just embarking on your career, CPI is an ideal place to expand your knowledge and expertise. We cultivate a healthy, dynamic, and team-oriented environment that empowers our employees to develop, create and deliver innovative, reliable technology solutions to power, connect, protect, and support a better tomorrow.

We offer our employees an attractive compensation package with competitive salaries and comprehensive benefits, including health and wellness programs, career development, generous retirement savings plan with company match and more!

WHO WE ARE:

We value the unique and diverse skills, qualities, and backgrounds that each employee brings to CPI, and we respect each employee as an integral member of our growing team. CPI is committed to providing equal employment opportunities for all current and prospective employees, as well as to promoting a culture of inclusion and respect for everyone. We celebrate the innovation that diversity creates in the work environment, and we recognize that each employee brings their own unique capabilities, experiences, and perspectives to the organization. It is this variety that adds value to our teams, as well as to our stakeholders. We welcome and encourage applicants to reach their full potential with us.

CPI is proud to be an Equal Opportunity and Affirmative Action employer. We do not discriminate based upon race, religion, color, national origin, sex (including pregnancy, childbirth or related medical conditions), sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, gender expression, transgender status, sexual stereotypes, age, status as a protected veteran, status as an individual with a disability or other applicable legally protected characteristics.