Senior Systems Engineer in Cambridge

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, or a related field.
• Master’s degree is desirable but not essential.
• Significant experience in a systems engineering role within RF, Electronics, aerospace, defence, or similar complex engineering environments.
• Proven experience delivering systems through prototype, test, and NPI.
• Experience coordinating multi-disciplinary engineering teams.
• Hands-on experience with RF systems, system integration, and troubleshooting.
• Strong system-level analytical and problem-solving skills.
• Solid understanding of RF principles and RF product integration.
• Experience designing for manufacture and supporting prototype builds.
• Proficiency with mechanical CAD (SolidWorks) is highly desirable.
• Familiarity with relevant standards (IEEE, ISO, MIL-STD, DEF-STAN).
• Clear, confident communicator capable of leading technical discussions.
• Excellent problem-solving skills and attention to detail.
• Comfortable making technical decisions with incomplete information.
• Pragmatic, delivery-focused, and evidence-driven.
• Able to balance hands-on engineering with leadership responsibility.
• Under 10% travel required.

What the job involves

CRFS is seeking an experienced Senior Systems Engineer to lead the day-to-day delivery of complete RF systems and products from concept through prototype, design, verification, validation, and NPI into a manufacturable and shippable system at scale. This role acts as the technical delivery lead for a system pod, coordinating Mechanical, hardware, RF, embedded software, applications software, and test activities to ensure the best possible end-to-end system outcome with minimal compromise. The Senior Systems Engineer retains hands-on technical involvement but is primarily accountable for system convergence, trade-off decisions, integration, and delivery readiness, rather than individual component design. They will operate within the Systems Engineering V-model framework, using rapid fail-fast prototyping to de-risk concepts early.

Own day-to-day delivery of one or more system projects from concept to NPI handover. Act as the primary technical lead and escalation point for the project pod. Plan and run system-level technical reviews and readiness checkpoints. Coordinate inputs from Hardware, RF, Embedded Software, Applications Software, Mechanical Design, and Test teams. Ensure delivery progress, risks, and trade-offs are visible and actively managed. Define and maintain system architecture, interfaces, and performance targets. Translate product intent and customer needs into clear system requirements and acceptance criteria. Ensure subsystem designs align with overall system goals and constraints. Manage system-level trade-offs (performance, cost, power, manufacturability, schedule). Lead system integration activities and convergence. Work closely with Test and Verification to define system-level test strategies early. Support execution of verification and validation activities and assess readiness for progression and NPI. Troubleshoot complex system-level issues spanning multiple domains. Provide hands-on technical input where appropriate, including mechanical design, prototype build support, and system bring-up. Review and guide mechanical designs to ensure RF performance, manufacturability, and deployment constraints are met. Support rapid prototyping and iteration to retire technical risk early. Lead system aspects of NPI, ensuring designs are production-ready. Ensure system requirements, limitations, and validation evidence are clearly communicated to production teams. Support early production builds and resolution of system-level issues. Mentor Systems Engineers, Junior Engineers, and Project Engineers in good systems practice. Promote clear system thinking, evidence-based decision-making, and pragmatic engineering judgement. Contribute to continuous improvement of systems engineering processes and standards.