About the role
As a Cellular RF System Architect on the Cellular RF Systems Engineering team, you will contribute to defining cellular radio technologies addressing GSM, UMTS, LTE, 5G NR, and upcoming 6G standards. You will collaborate with Platform Architecture, RFIC and PMU design teams, and suppliers to define transceiver and front-end architectures and set system requirements.
What you'll do
- Define and optimize cellular RF architectures by setting critical system requirements for transceiver and front-end solutions.
- Collaborate with Platform Architecture, RFIC, and PMU design teams to assess, scope, and implement cellular radio technologies across GSM, UMTS, LTE, 5G NR, and 6G.
- Derive detailed implementation requirements based on high-level system requirements and complex system use cases.
- Partner with external suppliers and cross-functional teams to resolve multi-disciplinary RF system challenges.
- Support project milestones with comprehensive technical documentation and technical writing.
What you'll need
- BS degree and a minimum of 10 years of relevant industry experience.
- Experience in deriving implementation requirements from high-level system requirements.
- Proven ability to collaborate across cross-functional engineering teams to resolve complex, multi-disciplinary problems.
- Strong technical writing skills.
Nice to have
- 5+ years of relevant RF experience with direct expertise in transmitter and receiver architectures.
- In-depth knowledge of cellular radio standards (GSM, UMTS, LTE, 5G NR, and upcoming 6G), regulatory standards, and carrier requirements.
- Experience with RF performance metrics including EIRP, TRP, noise figure, sensitivity/desense, phase noise, EVM, spectral mask, spurious, harmonics, intermodulation, s-parameters, Smith charts, and tuning networks.
- Experience in RF line-up analysis, AGC and TPC concepts, calibration, and compensation methods.
- Understanding of antenna array theory and associated measurement methods.
Skills: Cellular, 5G NR, RF System Architecture, Transmitter/Receiver, Link Budget
More semiconductor jobs: Apple jobs · RF design jobs
This role has been open 0 days — well below the 50-day median for RF/Wireless Engineering roles.
RF/Wireless Engineering · RF Frontend
|
Open roles in category
260
|
Median days open
50 d
|
Category median salary (all employers)
$166k
|
See the full market breakdown ▾Category comparison, skills in demand, and who else is hiring
| Metric | Apple | All employers we track in this specialty (260 roles · 35 employers) |
|---|---|---|
| Open roles in this specialty | 33 | 260 |
| Open roles in the wider Analog & Mixed-Signal family | 65 | 1527 · 111 employers |
| Median days open | 15 d | 50 d (−35 d vs this employer) |
| Median salary (USD postings) | — | $166k |
Skills observed across this category: Cellular, 5G NR, RF System Architecture, Transmitter/Receiver, Link Budget
Who's hiring in this category
- Skyworks · 56 open roles · median 42 d
- Apple (this employer) · 31 open roles · median 20 d
- Keysight Technologies · 31 open roles · median 82 d
- Qualcomm · 23 open roles · median 104 d
- MACOM · 17 open roles · median 8 d
- NXP Semiconductors · 14 open roles · median 48 d
How we counted: 260 open RF/Wireless Engineering (RF Frontend) roles from 35 employers tracked in the SemiconductorJobs index, counted 5 Nov 2026. Specialty figures count only roles carrying this exact specialty label, so an employer's related work in neighbouring specialties is not included there — it is counted in the wider Analog & Mixed-Signal family row. Figures refresh nightly.