RF Validation Engineer I - Austin, United States
$84,000 - $156,000 USD yearly
Originally posted 20 October 2026 by the employer.
About the role
Silicon Labs is seeking an RF Validation Engineer I to focus on RF and PHY-MAC design validation of wireless IPs for low-power System-on-Chip IoT products. The role spans technologies including Bluetooth Low-Energy, 802.15.4 Zigbee-Thread, 802.11 Wi-Fi, Wi-SUN, and proprietary short-range wireless from initial concept to silicon bring-up.
What you'll do
- Contribute to initial development of Zigbee, BLE, Wi-SUN, ZWave, MBus, and proprietary PHY configurations for RF SoCs. - Perform pre-silicon testing utilizing block or chip-level test benches and FPGA emulation. - Bring-up and validate new IP on silicon, providing support and feedback to cross-functional teams. - Perform lab measurements including RX sensitivity, frequency/baudrate/deviation tolerance, blocking, and TX Output Power. - Support IC Design, Applications, FW, PTE, SQA, Systems, and Modules teams with RFIC performance data analysis. - Guide software teams on RF SW implementations to build scalable test infrastructure platforms and tools.
What you'll need
- BSEE or MSEE and 1 year of industry experience in mixed-signal SoCs with exposure to the RF signal chain. - Experience using Python or other high-level modeling languages or tools for designing and evaluating communication systems and algorithms. - Understanding of analog signal fundamentals, basic circuit components, and specifications. - Experience with RF signal chains including LNAs, mixers, PAs, A/D, and D/A. - Experience with digital modulation formats such as MSK/FSK, OQPSK, and OOK/ASK. - Proficiency taking measurements with RF lab instruments including signal generators, spectrum analyzers, network analyzers, oscilloscopes, DMMs, and SMUs.
Nice to have
- Basic DSP knowledge (up/down sampling, FIR filtering). - Experience in revision control and configuration management systems.
Skills: RF, validation, bring-up, PHY, spectrum analyzer
This role has been open 0 days — well below the 43-day median for Post-Silicon Validation roles.
Post-Silicon Validation · Silicon Validation
|
Open roles in category
415
|
Median days open
43 d
|
Median salary
$175k
|
See the full market breakdown ▾Category comparison, skills in demand, and who else is hiring
| Metric | Silicon Labs | All employers we track in this specialty (415 roles · 61 employers) |
|---|---|---|
| Open roles in this specialty | 2 | 415 |
| Open roles in the wider Silicon Validation & Test family | 9 | 2229 · 113 employers |
| Median days open | 0 d | 43 d (−43 d vs this employer) |
| Median salary (USD postings) | — | $175k |
Skills observed across this category: RF, validation, bring-up, PHY, spectrum analyzer
Who's hiring in this category
- AMD · 58 open roles · median 46 d
- Micron Technology · 38 open roles · median 42 d
- Qualcomm · 37 open roles · median 31 d
- NVIDIA · 27 open roles · median 26 d
- Microchip Technology · 22 open roles · median 71 d
- Graphcore · 20 open roles · median 124 d
How we counted: 415 open Post-Silicon Validation (Silicon Validation) roles from 61 employers tracked in the SemiconductorJobs index, counted 20 Oct 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 Silicon Validation & Test family row. Figures refresh nightly.