Senior Staff Engineer, RFIC Design and AI Platforms - San Diego, CA, United States
$208,851 - $271,522 USD yearly
Originally posted 21 August 2026 by the employer — open 32 days.
About the role
This position is responsible for the development and deployment of intelligent automation systems for RF product development, including the application of agentic AI technologies, and for the design and development of advanced RF Front End ICs for Front End Modules used in 5G smartphones.
What you'll do
- Serve as a technical authority for RFIC architecture, circuit design strategy, and product-level tradeoff decisions.
- Lead the development, validation, and deployment of AI-enabled RFIC design automation methodologies.
- Partner with software and AI engineers to integrate capabilities into scalable, validated, and reusable engineering workflows.
- Develop ICs in RF SOI and other appropriate semiconductor technologies for RF frontend platform products.
- Lead and provide technical direction in product design, including schematic capture, IC layout, simulation, package analysis, evaluation board development, test plan creation, validation, and product release.
- Identify opportunities where AI, automation, and advanced design methodologies can materially improve RFIC development.
What you'll need
- 9+ years of relevant RFIC design and product development experience.
- Expertise designing RFIC products in RF SOI, bulk CMOS, and/or BiCMOS technologies, with deep experience in one or more areas such as LNAs, RF switches, power amplifiers, RF frontend control circuitry, or other RF/analog building blocks.
- Strong understanding of analog biasing and control circuitry.
- Excellent RF design and analysis skillset, including knowledge of S-parameters, noise figure, stability, P1dB, harmonics, IMD, IIP2/IIP3, and the capability to design for and measure each parameter.
- Advanced working knowledge of analog and RF IC layout techniques and physical design considerations.
- Strong programming or scripting capability for engineering automation, preferably including Python.
- Proficiency with RF IC EDA tools including Cadence Virtuoso, Keysight ADS, and EM simulators such as EMX and HFSS.
- MSEE or equivalent advanced technical education and relevant industry experience.
Skills: RFIC design, RF Front End ICs, 5G, LNAs, RF switches, power amplifiers
This role has been open 31 days — well below the 46-day median for RF/Wireless Engineering roles.
RF/Wireless Engineering · RF Frontend
|
Open roles in category
257
|
Median days open
46 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 | 1344 · 106 employers |
| Median days open | 104 d | 46 d (+58 d vs this employer) |
| Median salary (USD postings) | — | $165k |
Skills observed across this category: RFIC design, RF Front End ICs, 5G, LNAs, RF switches, power amplifiers
Who's hiring in this category
- QORVO · 48 open roles · median 34 d
- Skyworks · 37 open roles · median 31 d
- Qualcomm · 26 open roles · median 60 d
- Keysight Technologies · 23 open roles · median 174 d
- Apple · 19 open roles · median 18 d
- Analog Devices · 12 open roles · median 44 d
How we counted: 257 open RF/Wireless Engineering (RF Frontend) roles from 34 employers tracked in the SemiconductorJobs index, counted 22 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.