Radio Frequency Engineer

Helsing•5h ago

United KingdomOnsiteFull-time

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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
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
you'll be hands-on: designing, building, testing
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 protection of democratic countries while balancing both ethical and geopolitical concerns
The work is unique. We operate in a domain that has highly unusual technical requirements and constraints
where robustness, safety
ethical considerations are vital. You will face unique Engineering and AI challenges that make a meaningful impact in the world
Our work frequently takes us right up to the state of the art in technical innovation, be it reinforcement learning, distributed systems, generative AI
deployment infrastructure. The defence industry is entering the most exciting phase of the technological development curve. Advances in our field of world are not incremental: Helsing is part of
often leading, historic leaps forward
In our domain, success is a matter of order-of-magnitude improvements and novel capabilities. This means we take bets, aim high
focus on big opportunities. Despite being a relatively young company, Helsing has already been selected for multiple significant government contracts
We actively encourage healthy, proactive
diverse debate internally about what we do and how we choose to do it. Teams and individual engineers are trusted (and encouraged) to practise responsible autonomy and critical thinking
to focus on outcomes, not conformity. At Helsing you will have a say in how we (and you!) work, the opportunity to engage on what does and doesn’t work
to take ownership of aspects of our culture that you care deeply about
What we offer
Competitive salary and VSOP options
Relocation support : up to €2,500 and 4 weeks temporary accommodation
Learning : €500/£450 yearly allowance
Health & wellness : gym membership and mental health support (Nilo.health)
Social : regular company events and monthly social allowances
Enhanced parental leave : 22 weeks fully paid for primary caregivers & 6 weeks for secondary caregivers
Family support: 5 days of paid family emergency leave, 100% remote work option during pregnancy and phased return to work
A hands-on onboarding program (affectionately labelled “Infraduction”), in which you will be building tooling and applications to be used across the company. This is your opportunity to learn our tech stack, explore the company
learn how we get things done - all whilst working with other engineering teams from day one
Helsing is an equal opportunities employer. We are committed to equal employment opportunity regardless of race, religion, sexual orientation, age, marital status, disability or gender identity. Please do not submit personal data revealing racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, religious or philosophical beliefs, trade union membership, data concerning your health
data concerning your sexual orientation.
Helsing's Candidate Privacy and Confidentiality Regime can be found here .

Required skills

Distributed Systems