Senior Radar Systems Engineer

Umbra builds next-generation space systems that observe the Earth in unprecedented fidelity.

Our mission is to deliver global omniscience.

To stay ahead of climate change, geopolitical risk, and other major crises and issues, we need a global understanding of what is changing, where, and how fast. Umbra provides easy access to the highest quality commercial satellite data available, which is an indispensable tool for the growing number of organizations monitoring the Earth. We empower our customers to create the solutions that inform, inspire, and address our planet’s most pressing needs. We’re helping to create a brand new industry that has never meaningfully existed before.

Umbra Mission Solutions is looking for a talented, mission-driven Senior Radar Systems Engineer to work closely with and provide overall technical guidance to a multidisciplinary engineering team, developing next-generation space radar systems. The ideal candidate has deep technical expertise in all major subsystems involved with the production and operation of space-based radar systems. You should be able to provide significant technical guidance and become intimately familiar with how Umbra’s software and hardware systems interact. In this role, you will support Umbra Mission Solutions as a critical contributor to ambitious programs and capture activities, working across teams to conceive, define, implement, and validate high-performance space-based radar systems.

Our aim is to hire this position to work in Umbra's Arlington, VA or Santa Barbara, CA office.

Key Responsibilities:

• Leverage a strong technical background to provide guidance for the optimization and continual improvement of Umbra’s radar satellites and software systems on a day-to-day basis.
• Work with stakeholders to formulate an iterative and agile development path to prototype demonstrations that may then pivots or transitions to operations.
• Collaborate with systems engineering, ground software, flight software, and space operations teams on ConOps definition, requirements formulation, and validation while bringing a system-level understanding to table.
• Be able to distill key-concepts to individual contributors and team leads in a collegiate manner that fosters a culture of openness and technical collaboration.
• Provide technical direction for payload modeling, simulation, mission design, and systems engineering analyses for current and future development efforts.
• Be comfortable doing all the above as part of a lean agile team aggressively focused on technical excellence to provide our customers with the best possible global insights.

Required Qualifications

• Master’s degree or equivalent experience in a related STEM field (such as aerospace, mechanical engineering, physics, or computer science).
• Fundamental expertise with at least 7+ years of experience and strong technical knowledge in space based remote sensing, specifically end-to-end radar systems domain knowledge.
• Expertise in analysis of radar systems elements including but not limited to: link budgets, insertion and return loss, noise figure, fast and slow time phase and amplitude, clock stability, TOA and geolocation, beam pattern, matched filters.
• Ability to perform system level performance analysis across various designs and derive expected KPIs relative to collection geometry.
• Strong ability to read and write software written in Python or similar high-level programming language.
• Strong understanding of core concepts in physics, mechanics, thermodynamics, and electrodynamics.
• Desire to mentor junior engineers in an effort to make the whole team technically stronger.
• Ability and desire to work collaboratively in a fast-paced team environment, a willingness to learn new skills and technology, and an openness to work within a companywide lean agile framework.

Desired Qualifications

• Three or more years’ experience with on orbit satellite operations.
• Analytical ability to drive a design from first principals to a block diagram to parts selection.
• Strong initiative for technical excellence and a DevOps mindset that champions causes and provides collaborative technical leadership.
• Experience with satellite mission modeling and simulation.
• Familiar using tools like as GitLab, JIRA, and Confluence to collaborate with teammates.
• Understanding of SAR or other Earth observation techniques.

• Flexible Time Off, Sick, Family & Medical Leave
• Medical, Dental, Vision, Life, LTD, STD (employer funded)
• Vol Life, Critical Illness, Accidental, Hospital Indemnity, Pet Insurance (employee funded)
• 401k with 3% non-elective company contribution
• Stock Options
• Free Parking (on-site only)
• Free lunch in office daily (on-site only)

Umbra is an Equal Opportunity Employer. We do not discriminate in hiring on the basis of sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, race, color, religious creed, national origin, physical or mental disability, protected veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state, or local law.

Employment Eligibility Verification

In compliance with federal laws, all hired persons will be required to verify their identity and eligibility to work in the United States by completing the required Employment Eligibility Verification Form (I-9 Form) upon hire.

ITAR/EAR Requirements

This position may include access to technology and/or data that is subject to U.S. export controls pursuant to ITAR and EAR. To comply with federal export controls, all persons hired must be a U.S. citizen, U.S. national, U.S. lawful permanent resident, refugee or asylee as defined by 8 U.S.C. § 1324b(a)(3), or must otherwise be eligible to obtain the required authorizations from the U.S. Department of State and/or U.S. Department of Commerce as applicable. 

Pay Transparency
This job posting may cover multiple career levels. To ensure greater transparency, we provide base salary ranges for all roles, regardless of location. Our standard pay ranges are based on the role’s function and level, benchmarked against similar growth-stage companies. Compensation may vary based on geographical location, as certain regions may have different cost-of-living factors. The final offer will also be influenced by the candidate's skills, responsibilities, and relevant experience.

Compensation Range

The Compensation Range for this role is $150,000 - $180,000 DOE.