Lead Systems and RF System Engineer at STR
Woburn, MA
$160,000–$220,000from the description
Jul 10, 2026
Woburn, MA
Jul 21, 2026
What this job asks for AI summary
A senior RF systems engineering role focused on leading small, cross-functional teams to design, build, integrate, and test prototype sensing and counter-sensing hardware — including antennas, transceivers, amplifiers, and associated processing systems — primarily for radar and electronic warfare applications. The work spans the full development cycle from requirements and trade studies through over-the-air demonstrations, with an expectation of eventually transitioning prototypes toward low-volume production. A security clearance is required.
Senior level · 10+ years · Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH · Bachelor's required · Secret clearance · Full-time
“or” means any one of them counts — you don't need all of them.
Posted 6 times — it's one opening, so apply once.
We read this from the posting text with AI. Skim the description below before ruling yourself out.
How this req sits in the market our data
Most people in this occupation already list these. Still required — just not what gets you shortlisted.
What the occupation pays Median $123,896 (middle half $86,879–$166,278). This posting is about at that midpoint.
Estimated from BLS employment for this occupation and area, per-skill prevalence across our listing corpus, and published wage benchmarks — as of Jul 28, 2026. It is a model, not a headcount.
Why we read it this way (9)
This is an RF/hardware systems engineering role — the primary day-to-day work is designing, integrating, and testing RF hardware systems (antennas, transceivers, waveguides, amplifiers, etc.) rather than writing software. No single SOC code perfectly captures this occupation; 15-1299 (Computer Occupations, All Other) is used as the closest available fit for a systems/hardware engineer. 15-1252 (Software Developers) is noted as an alt because the role involves significant signal-processing software work.
The JD states 'This position requires the ability to obtain a security clearance' as a hard gate (must be able to obtain), but lists an active Secret/TS/TS-SCI clearance only under 'Even Better' (preferred). Clearance is set to Secret to reflect the minimum obtainable gate.
MATLAB and Python are listed together with 'and/or' phrasing in the required section; they are treated as interchangeable alternatives for the proficiency requirement.
ANSYS HFSS and Sonnet appear together under the 'Even Better' (preferred) section as EM field solver options.
C/C++ and Python appear under the 'Even Better' section alongside software development familiarity — treated as preferred.
The role has multiple listed locations (near Boston MA, Arlington VA, Dayton OH, Melbourne FL, Carlsbad CA); Boston is used as the primary CBSA given it is listed first and is the company's headquarters area.
'Requirements development' is included as a must-have skill because the JD explicitly calls out 'Experience with developing requirements and verification plans for complex systems and subsystems' in the required qualifications. No specific tool is named, so it is listed as a capability rather than a named technology — this is a borderline case noted here for transparency.
Ignored 5 non-technology phrase(s) as skills (responsibilities/concepts, not named tools): RF systems engineering, RF transceiver design, link budget analysis, RF integration and test, requirements development.
Requires a Secret clearance — the cleared population is a small fraction of this occupation, so the real candidate pool is materially smaller than the estimate below, which does not model clearance.
Read the full posting
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