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At Parsons, you can imagine a career where you thrive, work with exceptional people, and be yourself. Guided by our leadership vision of valuing people, embracing agility, and fostering growth, we cultivate an innovative culture that empowers you to achieve your full potential. Unleash your talent and redefine what’s possible.

 

Job Description:

Parsons is seeking a Senior RF Payload Engineer to join a multidisciplinary engineering team developing, integrating, and maturing small RF space payloads for on-orbit missions. This is a highly hands-on position working directly with flight hardware, where you will influence both day-to-day technical execution and the strategic dirradection of our payload product line.

As Parsons’ payload offerings achieve program and mission success, this role is intended to grow into a Payload Chief Engineer / Technical Authority position, with increasing responsibility for payload architecture, technical risk management, and cross-program hardware decisions.

What You'll Be Doing:

• Payload Design & Integration
  • Design, develop, and integrate RF space payload hardware from the board level through subsystem level for small satellite platforms.
  • Direct and coordinate multidisciplinary engineering teams of RF, digital signal processing, electrical, and mechanical subject matter experts to develop cohesive payload designs, facilitating technical trade studies and design reviews to ensure seamless integration across all subsystem domains
  • End-to-End Hardware Ownership
  • Own the full hardware lifecycle, including requirements definition, design, build, integration, verification, validation, and delivery for flight.
  • Generate and maintain design documentation such as block diagrams, interface control documents (ICDs), test plans, test reports, and build records.
  • Lead troubleshooting and root-cause analysis activities for hardware issues discovered during integration and test.
• Space Environment & System-Level Considerations
  • Lead space-specific hardware engineering beyond RF performance, including thermal, radiation, power, structural, and reliability considerations.
  • Work with systems, mechanical, and software engineers to ensure payload designs meet mission-level performance, environmental, and reliability requirements.
  • Support parts selection and derating analyses for radiation tolerance, reliability, and space environment constraints.
• External Interfaces & Supplier Management
  • Interface with satellite bus providers to define and manage payload-to-bus interfaces (mechanical, electrical, thermal).
  • Coordinate with hardware component vendors and manufacturing partners for procurement, lead times, qualification status, and product obsolescence.
  • Participate in technical exchange meetings (TEMs), design reviews, and integration planning with customers and partners.
• Testing, Verification, & Qualification
  • Develop and execute environmental test plans for space hardware, including:
    • Thermal vacuum (TVAC)
    • Vibration and shock
    • EMI/EMC and related RF compatibility tests
  • Support or lead test setup, data collection, anomaly resolution, and formal test reporting.
  • Ensure hardware meets program requirements, customer specifications, and applicable space standards.
• Technical Leadership & Business Support
  • Provide technical input and leadership for internal and external design reviews (PDR, CDR, TRR, etc.).
  • Own and contribute technical content for RFIs, RFPs, proposals, white papers, and marketing materials to bring Parsons’ space payloads to market.
  • Support roadmap development for future payload capabilities, advising on technology trades, risk, and design re-use across multiple programs.

What Required Skills You'll Bring:

• Active TS/SCI clearance.
• 8–10 years of hands-on electronic hardware experience supporting space or high-reliability missions.
• Demonstrated experience with space payload design, assembly, integration, and test, including RF payloads or related spaceborne subsystems.
• Proven ability to take hardware from concept through detailed design, prototyping, integration, environmental test, and flight delivery as part of a multidisciplinary team.
• Experience working with or within formal engineering processes, including configuration management, requirements management, and design review cycles.
• Strong problem-solving skills and comfort working in a fast-paced, hands-on lab and integration environment.

What Desired Skills You'll Bring:

• Experience as a technical lead or subsystem lead on flight hardware.
• Familiarity with small satellite platforms (e.g., ESPA-class, CubeSat, or small GEO/MEO/LEO payloads).
• Experience with radiation analysis, parts selection/derating, and reliability engineering for space.
• Prior involvement in proposal development, customer briefings, or new business capture activities.
• Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, Physics, or related field; Master’s degree preferred.

Security Clearance Requirement:

An active Top Secret security clearance is required for this position.​

This position is part of our Federal Solutions team.

The Federal Solutions segment delivers resources to our US government customers that ensure the success of missions around the globe. Our intelligent employees drive the state of the art as they provide services and solutions in the areas of defense, security, intelligence, infrastructure, and environmental. We promote a culture of excellence and close-knit teams that take pride in delivering, protecting, and sustaining our nation's most critical assets, from Earth to cyberspace. Throughout the company, our people are anticipating what’s next to deliver the solutions our customers need now.

Salary Range: $103,500.00 - $181,100.00

Parsons is an equal opportunity employer, and all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, disability, veteran status or any other protected status.

We truly invest and care about our employee’s wellbeing and provide endless growth opportunities as the sky is the limit, so aim for the stars! Imagine next and join the Parsons quest—APPLY TODAY!

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