$155,400 - $233,200 USD yearly
Originally posted September 3, 2026 by the employer.
About the role
The Radio Frequency Hardware Engineer serves as a technical leader responsible for defining RF system and hardware architecture, technology strategy, and execution across wireless platforms. This position leads the development of RF solutions from concept through full prototype across technologies including 5G Advanced and 6G.
What you'll do
- Define RF system architecture and establish RF performance requirements across RF hardware, RFIC, antenna, modem, algorithms, and software domains.
- Lead the design, integration, optimization, and validation of RF subsystems including power amplifiers (PA), low-noise amplifiers (LNA), RF front-end modules (FEM), filters, duplexers, phased arrays, mixers, and synthesizers.
- Develop and validate RF system models and simulation environments, analyzing nonlinear behavior, cascaded impairments, EVM, ACLR, and spectral efficiency.
- Lead RF bring-up, debugging, characterization, and system validation activities, driving correlation between simulation, prototype, and production hardware.
- Drive design reviews, technical risk assessments, and architecture decisions across product definition, development, integration, and commercialization.
- Contribute to wireless standards development, technical proposals, research initiatives, and intellectual property generation.
What you'll need
- Master's Degree in Electrical Engineering, Electrical & Computer Engineering, Applied Physics, or a related field with 8 years of relevant industry experience, or a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering, Applied Physics, or a related discipline with 5 years of industry or post-doctoral experience (or a Bachelor's degree with 4+ years, Master's with 3+ years, or PhD with 2+ years of relevant engineering experience).
- Professional experience in RF hardware, RF system design, wireless communications, signal processing, and antenna systems.
- Demonstrated experience designing and integrating RF subsystems such as power amplifiers (PA), low-noise amplifiers (LNA), RF front-end modules (FEM), and phased arrays.
- Experience with RF system modeling, simulation environments, and system tradeoff studies involving EVM, ACLR, and spectral efficiency.
- Hands-on experience with RF bring-up, debugging, characterization, and system-level validation.
Skills: RF system, power amplifiers, LNA, FEM, phased arrays, 5G
More semiconductor jobs: Qualcomm jobs · RF design jobs · San Diego jobs
First seen in our index 71 days ago, well above the 52-day median for RF/Wireless Engineering roles.
RF/Wireless Engineering · RF Frontend
|
Open roles in category
274
|
Median days since first seen
52 d
|
Category median salary (all employers)
$167k
|
See the full market breakdown ▾Category comparison, skills in demand, and who else is hiring
| Metric | Qualcomm | All employers we track in this specialty (274 roles · 36 employers) |
|---|---|---|
| Open roles in this specialty | 30 | 274 |
| Open roles in the wider Analog & Mixed-Signal family | 85 | 1561 · 118 employers |
| Median days since first seen | 97 d | 52 d (−45 d vs this employer) |
| Median salary (USD postings) | n/a | $167k |
Skills observed across this category: RF system, power amplifiers, LNA, FEM, phased arrays, 5G
Who's hiring in this category
- Skyworks · 55 open roles · median 51 d
- Apple · 39 open roles · median 24 d
- Keysight Technologies · 34 open roles · median 59 d
- Qualcomm (this employer) · 30 open roles · median 96 d
- MACOM · 17 open roles · median 17 d
- Analog Devices · 11 open roles · median 91 d
How we counted: 274 open RF/Wireless Engineering (RF Frontend) roles from 36 employers tracked in the SemiconductorJobs index, counted 14 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, and is counted in the wider Analog & Mixed-Signal family row. Days are counted from when our index first saw each posting, not from the employer's original posting date.