Senior Staff Engineer, RF Power Amplifier Design - Arlington Heights, IL, United States
Originally posted 6 August 2026 by the employer — open 43 days.
About the role
This position is responsible for technical leadership, architecture definition, and end-to-end design direction for advanced RF power amplifier platforms supporting cellular and Wi-Fi front-end applications.
What you'll do
- Lead the development and technical evaluation of novel architectures, circuits, devices, and methods for high-performance RF power amplifiers and transmit chains using co-design and co-simulation of active and passive circuitry.
- Provide technical leadership for advanced RF power amplifier platforms for cellular and Wi-Fi front-end applications, including design reviews, architecture tradeoff decisions, and technical risk resolution across multiple programs.
- Drive advanced power amplifier design across multiple process technologies and supply modulation approaches, including envelope tracking, while determining design methodologies and evaluation criteria for complex or non-standard assignments.
- Lead cross-functional technical collaboration with engineering teams across pSemi and Murata on PA technologies, aligning design decisions, resolving escalated technical issues, and driving adoption of best practices.
- Lead technical execution of PA proof-of-concept prototypes and transition successful technologies into high-volume products, with accountability for design maturity, manufacturability, and performance outcomes.
- Serve as a technical expert in advancing pSemi and Murata RF PA capabilities, directing future efforts regarding tools, technology, performance, cost optimization, and design methodology improvements across the function.
What you'll need
- 12 or more years of RF FEM product development experience, with demonstrated technical capability in the design, development, and commercialization of advanced RF power amplifier products.
- More than 5 years of direct experience with GaAs-based power amplifier product development.
- At least 5 years of advanced development experience directly related to mobile power amplifier and/or transmitter design, including responsibility for resolving novel or non-standard technical challenges.
- Detailed knowledge and experience with design of envelope tracking (ET) PA for mobile applications.
- Direct hands-on experience with the design of highly efficient and linear power amplifiers operating between 600 MHz and 20 GHz.
- Experience with transistor level IC design and layout in multiple technology nodes, including GaAs HBT, CMOS-SOI, SiGe, GaN.
- Knowledge of WIFI and/or cellular standard system and key performance metrics.
- Experience with EM (Electromagnetic) modeling of high frequency RFIC's and PCB's.
- Hands on use of RF measurement equipment to validate and correlate performance metrics such as ACP/ACLR, EVM, IP3, NF and gain.
- Proficiency with Virtuoso, Cadence Spectre, Keysight ADS, EM software, and Matlab, JMP.
- Master’s degree in Electrical Engineering (or equivalent field).
Skills: RF power amplifier, cellular, Wi-Fi, GaAs HBT, envelope tracking, RFIC
This role has been open 42 days — exactly the 42-day median for RF/Wireless Engineering roles.
RF/Wireless Engineering · RF Frontend
|
Open roles in category
257
|
Median days open
42 d
|
Median salary
$165k
|
See the full market breakdown ▾Category comparison, skills in demand, and who else is hiring
| Metric | pSemi | All employers we track in this specialty (257 roles · 34 employers) |
|---|---|---|
| Open roles in this specialty | 6 | 257 |
| Open roles in the wider Analog & Mixed-Signal family | 7 | 1336 · 104 employers |
| Median days open | 100 d | 42 d (+58 d vs this employer) |
| Median salary (USD postings) | — | $165k |
Skills observed across this category: RF power amplifier, cellular, Wi-Fi, GaAs HBT, envelope tracking, RFIC
Who's hiring in this category
- QORVO · 49 open roles · median 30 d
- Skyworks · 36 open roles · median 27 d
- Qualcomm · 26 open roles · median 63 d
- Keysight Technologies · 23 open roles · median 170 d
- Apple · 20 open roles · median 15 d
- Analog Devices · 11 open roles · median 34 d
How we counted: 257 open RF/Wireless Engineering (RF Frontend) roles from 34 employers tracked in the SemiconductorJobs index, counted 18 Sept 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.