Radio Frequency Engineer

Who we are Helsing is a defence AI company. Our mission is to protect our democracies. We aim to achieve technological leadership, so that open societies can continue to make sovereign decisions and control their ethical standards.   As democracies, we believe we have a special responsibility to be thoughtful about the development and deployment of powerful technologies like AI. We take this responsibility seriously.   We are an ambitious and committed team of engineers, AI specialists and customer-facing programme managers.  We are looking for mission-driven people to join our European teams – and apply their skills to solve the most complex and impactful problems. We embrace an open and transparent culture that welcomes healthy debates on the use of technology in defence, its benefits, and its ethical implications.   The role Every platform we build has to talk to something, a ground station, a network, a seeker, another aircraft and it has to keep talking when someone is actively trying to stop it. That link doesn't get to be an afterthought.   As an RF Engineer on the Physical Products team, you'll design and integrate the radio frequency systems that make our platforms work in the real, contested electromagnetic environments they're built for, not a clean lab bench. You'll work across the full chain, from antenna and front-end design through to link budgets and EW resilience, and you'll be hands-on: designing, building, testing, and fixing real RF hardware, not just modelling it. This is a role for someone who wants their design decisions tested against a real environment, not just a spec sheet.   The day-to-day Design and specify RF front-ends, antennas, and associated hardware, reasoning through gain, bandwidth, efficiency, size, and cost trade-offs for a given platform and mission   Own link budget analysis for communications, telemetry, and/or seeker/radar systems, translating range, data rate, and reliability requirements into a defensible RF architecture   Work on resilience to a contested electromagnetic environment, jamming, spoofing, and interference and design systems that degrade gracefully rather than fail outright   Integrate RF systems into the wider electrical architecture, managing grounding, shielding, and EMC considerations so RF performance survives contact with the rest of the platform   Get hands-on with RF test equipment, spectrum analysers, VNAs, signal generators to characterise, debug, and validate real hardware, not just simulate it   Work closely with electronics, software, and systems engineers to ensure RF subsystems integrate cleanly with power, structure, and the rest of the avionics stack   Support field testing of RF and communications systems, including range trials and EW/interference testing, and feed real-world results back into the design   Produce clear documentation, link budgets, test reports, interface definitions, that the rest of the team and our customers can actually rely on   You should apply if you Have designed and integrated RF systems in a professional engineering context, ideally within aerospace, defence, or another demanding, safety-critical domain   Understand RF fundamentals deeply enough to reason from first principles, propagation, antenna theory, link budgets, modulation schemes, noise, and interference   Have hands-on experience with RF test and measurement equipment, and are comfortable debugging real hardware, not just simulation output   Have worked on systems that need to survive a contested or degraded RF environment, or can reason confidently about what that requires even without direct experience   Can interpret complex datasheets and specifications for RF components (amplifiers, filters, mixers, antennas) and translate them into sound design decisions   Collaborate effectively across disciplines, electronics, software, systems and communicate clearly in written and spoken English   Note: We operate in an industry where women, as well as other minority groups, are systematically   under-represented. We encourage you to apply even if you don’t meet all the listed qualifications; ability and impact cannot be summarised in a few bullet points. Nice to Have Experience with electronic warfare (EW), signals intelligence, or counter-UAS RF systems   Experience with radar or seeker RF front-end design   Familiarity with SDR (software-defined radio) platforms and associated toolchains (GNU Radio, MATLAB RF toolbox, or equivalent)   Experience with antenna design and simulation tools (e.g. HFSS, CST)   Exposure to relevant standards and spectrum regulations for defence or aerospace RF systems   Join Helsing and work with world-leading experts in their fields   Helsing’s work is important. You’ll be directly contributing to the pro