Lead Hardware Development Engineer

About the role

You will lead the technical development and execution of Northwood's antenna systems or major subsystems from initial concept through full production and global deployment. You own the end-to-end realization of multidisciplinary antenna products that integrate mechanical structures, RF hardware, electronics, embedded systems, thermal management, manufacturing, and test. This role requires a deeply technical engineer capable of operating as both a senior individual contributor and a cross-functional product lead across the entire development lifecycle. You will translate high-level product and mission objectives into clear system requirements, architectures, interfaces, performance budgets, and rigorous verification strategies. You will organize teams around the most critical engineering problems, identify risks and dependencies early, and drive products through design reviews, prototype builds, testing, production, and field deployment. If you like solving complex challenges and seeing your work deployed around the world with real impact, Northwood is the place to do it.

Key facts

What you'll do

• Own the technical development and execution of a Northwood antenna system or major subsystem from concept through production and deployment.
• Translate product, customer, and mission needs into system requirements, architectures, interfaces, performance budgets, and verification plans.
• Coordinate development across mechanical, electrical, RF, antenna, embedded software, thermal, manufacturing, test, supply chain, and field operations.
• Build and manage development schedules, technical milestones, critical-path dependencies, and risk-mitigation plans.
• Lead system-level trade studies across antenna performance, structural design, power, thermal behavior, reliability, manufacturability, cost, and deployment speed.
• Drive prototype builds, system integration, test campaigns, root-cause investigations, and production-readiness reviews.
• Contribute directly to design, analysis, prototyping, testing, and troubleshooting within your primary engineering discipline.
• Provide clear updates to engineering leadership on progress, risks, decisions, and resource needs.
• Translate ambiguous product objectives into clear requirements, development plans, schedules, and test strategies.
• Organize cross-functional teams to solve the most important engineering problems early in the development process.
• Ensure technical interfaces are well-defined and managed across all disciplines to prevent integration issues.
• Apply strong expertise in mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, RF hardware, embedded systems, or a related discipline.
• Develop the system-level understanding needed to drive the complete antenna product from requirements to field operation.
• Support the integration of hardware products into the broader Northwood ground station communications network.

Requirements

• Hold a Bachelor's or Master's degree in Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, RF Engineering, Systems Engineering, or a related technical discipline.
• Bring 3+ years of experience developing complex hardware, antenna systems, RF products, aerospace systems, or similarly multidisciplinary technology.
• Demonstrate deep individual-contributor expertise in at least one relevant engineering discipline, such as mechanical design, electrical hardware, RF hardware, antenna engineering, embedded systems, or systems integration.
• Show proven experience owning a complex hardware product or subsystem through design, prototyping, integration, testing, and delivery.
• Exhibit strong systems-thinking ability and experience managing technical interfaces and tradeoffs across multiple engineering disciplines.
• Have experience turning ambiguous product objectives into requirements, development plans, schedules, and test strategies.
• Possess hands-on experience building, integrating, testing, and troubleshooting physical hardware systems.
• Display strong organization, communication, and cross-functional leadership skills.
• Be comfortable working in a fast-paced, mission-driven environment where real-world impact is the primary focus.
• Be based in or willing to relocate to the Torrance, California area to support onsite collaboration.

Nice to have

• Experience developing phased-array antennas, ground station antennas, satellite communications systems, radar systems, or other complex RF hardware.
• Experience with antenna structures, RF enclosures, electronics packaging, thermal management, environmental sealing, cable routing, or electromechanical integration.
• Familiarity with antenna elements, amplifiers, filters, frequency converters, beamforming electronics, calibration systems, and RF distribution networks.
• Experience taking a hardware product from early architecture through qualification, production, installation, and field operation.
• Experience with environmental testing, design for manufacturing, supplier management, and production-readiness processes.
• Track record of resolving complex integration issues across mechanical, electrical, RF, embedded, and software boundaries.

Practical notes

This role is full_time based in Torrance, California.

If you need a reasonable accommodation as part of your application process, please let us know.