Senior RF Systems Engineer

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Position Description
Will support the NOAA NESDIS Program Management Office (PMO) in overseeing the Radio Frequency Interference Monitoring System (RFIMS) project. Will provide technical engineering support in radio frequency spectrum management, LTE, 5G and other wireless communications technologies in the 1670MHz to 1755MHz band. Will perform independent technical analysis, (RF engineering or LTE/5G NR wireless communications) acquisition support and provide technical recommendations in the form of reports, white papers, and strategic analysis. Will participate in complex technical studies in cooperation with the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) Institute for Telecommunications Sciences (ITS) on NOAA Ground Station antenna/receiver systems. Duties Include:

• Provide ongoing coordination and technical support to the PMO including performing both scheduled and unscheduled preventative maintenance of RMS system components—including, but not limited to, antenna columns, antenna masts, RF cables, diesel generators, electronic equipment cabinets, network equipment, environmental control systems and trailers—in accordance with manufacturer recommendations.
• Support the Government’s corrective maintenance efforts by providing technical guidance, troubleshooting expertise, and training to enable Government personnel to diagnose issues and repair or replace faulty components, thereby restoring system functionality as quickly as possible and coordinating with the suppliers if needed.
• Assist the government in preparing Operations Emergency Response plans and services for critical inclement weather situations to include stowing the antenna, shutting down the system and restoring to operational status.
• Maintain the shipping and receiving the stock inventory of spare parts to ensure repair and replacement of RFIMS system components. Coordinate changes with federal property management where necessary.
• Support the RFIMS PMO effort of managing the Infrastructure, Database, and Application Management for the RFIMS CMS by providing ongoing coordination and technical support to assist in maintaining Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) resources, Elastic Load Balancing (ELB) and Elastic File System (EFS) in the NOAA WOC environment as defined in the Information Technology Agreement (ITA) between NOAA OCIO Service Delivery Division (SDD) WOC Services and NESDIS RFIMS.

Required Skills
10+ years of experience in RF technologies and in mobile networks R&D or Engineering.

• Excellent knowledge and proficiency of RF measurement theory in communications concepts such as modulation, link budgets, propagation, coding, channel modeling, filtering, spectral analysis
• Knowledge of 3GPP specifications, 5G NR, and other wireless technologies such as 4G/3G, NB-IOT, LTE-M1, SATCOM, WAN
• Good understanding of RF antenna design (phased arrays, parabolic dish, feed electronics)
• Ability to perform radio frequency interference & compatibility analysis, and power spectral density analysis for wireless communication systems and meteorological satellite ground stations.
• Perform analysis using software such as Matlab, Simulink and Excel.
  Experience with the operation and automated programming of RF test equipment including vector signal analyzers, vector signal generators, network analyzers, power meters, and power supplies
• Experience in writing and debugging command line interface scripts used to control RF transceivers and associated radio circuits
• Knowledge of over the air testing and characterization of LTE and 5GNR radios
• Excellent communication skills to deliver written analyses, reports, and recommendations
• Must be a US Citizen or a Permanent Resident and be able to pass a background investigation to obtain a security badge to enter the applicable government facility.
• Familiarity with DoD Acquisition processes and Systems Development Life Cycle
• Knowledge of emerging technologies such as Massive (IoT) and smart cities, AI/ML
• Proficiency in setting up, calibration, utilization and data processing of various LTE design and optimization equipment and software
• Working knowledge of at least two of the common industry propagation/planning tools (like Planet or Atoll) and experience with model calibrations
• Working knowledge of drive test data post-processing, map generation, frequency planning and interference matrix analysis and site database maintenance, using Windcatcher/Actix/Accuver
• Experience in software configuration management tools (e.g., ARM, DOORS, JIRA, REMEDY)
• Knowledge of NTIA and ITS Radio Frequency Interference testing framework.
• Some understanding or experience with weather satellites communications systems such LEO and GEO
• Knowledge of Software Defined Radios (SDR)
• Understanding of O-RAN requirements and architecture

Education
BS in electrical/electronic engineering, computer science, physics, other related technical discipline, or equivalent. MS preferred.

Location
Work may be performed remotely with periodic travel to NOAA facilities as needed.

Compensation
The salary range for this role is $48,000 – $269,000/year. This range is a good faith estimate based on similar roles across the organization. ERT uses several factors when extending an offer, including but not limited to, the position\’s scope and expected duties, a candidate’s work experience, education/training, and key skills.

Benefits
All full-time employees are eligible to participate in our flexible benefits package, which includes:

• Medical, Rx, Dental, and Vision Insurance
• 401(k) retirement plan with company-matching
• Paid Time Off (PTO)
• Basic Life & Supplemental Life
• Health Savings Account, Flexible Spending and Dependent Care Flexible Spending Accounts
• Short-Term & Long-Term Disability
• Employee assistance program (EAP)
• Tuition Reimbursement, Personal Development & Learning Opportunities
• Skills Development & Certifications
• Professional Membership Reimbursement
• Employee Referral Program
• Competitive compensation plan
• Discretionary variable incentive bonuses based on factors such as individual performance, business unit performance, and/or the company’s performance
• Publication and Conference Presentation Awards with bonuses

ERT is a VEVRAA Federal Contractor and Equal Opportunity employer – All qualified applicants will be considered for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, disability, or protected Veteran status.

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