About the Position

RF Test Engineer

Valencia, Spain

Role Highlights

Position: RF Test Engineer
Location: Valencia, Spain
Reports to: Laboratory Lead & Test Architect
Employment Type: Permanent
Workplace Model: Hybrid
Security Screening: Required (SUPO, where applicable)

Why This Role Matters

As an RF Test Engineer, you’ll capture real signals from real hardware and build the system that plays them back through a channel simulator. ICEYE is building a space-based RF constellation covering 100 MHz to 30 GHz alongside its SAR fleet, and the Experimentation Lab in Valencia is where we develop, simulate, and validate that capability.

Our processing, on the ground today and on board from Gen 2, is only as good as the signals we test it against. Today we have some synthetic I/Q, a few captures, and a lot of assumptions. You’ll help us build a library of real emitter signals with known truth, plus a way to replay them as a satellite would hear them, with LEO Doppler, delay, path loss, and interference, coherently across several satellites at once.

You’ll be one of the first engineers in the lab, with direct influence on how ICEYE builds and proves this capability.

About the Company

ICEYE is the world leader in sovereign intelligence from space. We deliver persistent monitoring capabilities to detect and respond to changes in any location on Earth.

ICEYE owns the world's largest and most advanced SAR (synthetic aperture radar) satellite constellation. To our customers, we provide intelligence with unmatched quality, latency, and revisit times, in any weather, day or night. To governments who choose to operate their own constellation, we provide this proven capability as a sovereign system.

ICEYE-built constellations serve customers in defense and intelligence, environmental monitoring, insurance, and emergency management. We enable fast decisions that contribute to a safer future.

Founded and headquartered in Finland, ICEYE operates globally with over 1000 employees across Europe, North America, the Middle East, and Asia-Pacific.

Responsibilities

Capture Real Emissions: Bring emitters into the lab (marine radars, AIS and ADS-B transponders, satcom terminals, partner-supplied equipment), operate them in a controlled, screened setup, and record them at the right bandwidth, dynamic range, and timing accuracy. Extend this to field and airborne collection.
Characterise Captures: Turn raw recordings into library entries with I/Q in a documented format (SigMF or equivalent), measured parameters (PRI, pulse width, scan, chirp, hopping, modulation), metadata, and truth, so someone who wasn’t there can reuse them.
Build the Generate and Playback Chain: Specify, integrate, and calibrate the RF record and playback system (SDRs, vector signal generators, arbitrary waveform generators, and multi-channel playback), from a single emitter up to a dense scene.
Build the Channel Simulator Path: Apply per-satellite delay, Doppler, Doppler rate, path loss, multipath, and interference to recorded and synthetic signals, phase-coherently across channels and driven by geometry from the simulation software.
Develop Test Hardware and Software: Fixtures, RF interconnect, switching, attenuation, and calibration paths, plus the Python code that controls and automates your instruments, so every measurement runs as a script.
Feed the End-to-End Loop: Inject signals into the flatsat, receivers, and processing chain, work with the simulation team so RF stimulus and simulated truth line up in time and frequency, and support algorithm validation campaigns.
Keep Operations Lawful and Safe: Work with the regulator, site safety, and partners on screened operation, test identities (MMSI, ICAO address), and RF exposure limits for everything that transmits.

Requirements

Must Haves:

Hands-on RF measurement and signal capture experience with spectrum and real-time signal analyzers, vector signal generators, SDRs, and oscilloscopes, and the judgement to spot a clipped, aliased, or contaminated capture.
Experience building or integrating an RF record and playback, signal generation, or hardware-in-the-loop test system.
Solid DSP fundamentals: sampling, I/Q, filtering, channelization, Doppler, and timing effects, and how each shows up in a recording.
Python (or equivalent) for instrument control, automation, and analysis, with comfort in SCPI/VISA and SDR APIs.
Calibration discipline: reference planes, path loss, and phase characterization, and an uncertainty you can defend.
Clear written and spoken English.

Nice to Haves:

Radar, ELINT, ESM, or EW background, especially with pulsed and frequency-agile emitters.
Experience with channel emulators or fading simulators (for example PROPSIM or Vertex) or a home-built equivalent, and satellite or LEO link simulation.
Multi-channel phase-coherent systems, precision timing (GPSDO, PPS, White Rabbit), or TDOA/FDOA test.
GNU Radio, MATLAB, UHD, VITA 49, SigMF.
Microwave work above 18 GHz, anechoic and screened-room operation, EMC test.
Field collection campaigns from masts, vehicles, or aircraft.
Eligibility for national security clearance (an advantage).

What Success Looks Like

6 Months: Your first lab emitters (marine radar, AIS) are captured, characterized, and in the library with truth, and a playback path replays a capture into a receiver repeatably.
12 Months: Multi-channel playback runs through a channel simulator driven by simulated geometry, supports at least one algorithm validation campaign, and your first field collection is complete.
24 Months: The processing teams use the library routinely, and a calibrated, automated stimulus chain is part of the end-to-end lab loop.

Application Process

Application Screening
TA Call
Hiring Manager Call
Onsite Interview

Working at ICEYE

At ICEYE, you’ll join a diverse and highly engaged team united by the ambition to make the impossible possible. As a global scale-up, we combine speed and ambition with the opportunity to take real ownership from day one. Your growth, wellbeing, and success are a priority, with continuous professional development, training opportunities, and a culture where collaboration is how we win.

Our Commitment to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

We want ICEYE to be a place where people can be themselves and do great work. Different backgrounds and perspectives make us stronger, which is why we work to create an environment where people feel included, respected, and able to speak up. Whatever your background, we want you to bring your authentic self to the table.

We’re committed to fair, inclusive hiring and equal opportunity. Everyone is welcome to apply. If you need any adjustments or support during the recruitment process, tell us-we’ll do our best to help.

Apply now to start your ICEYE journey, and help us continue to make the impossible possible together. Read more about ICEYE and working with us at iceye.com.

RF Test Engineer

Job description