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