Summary/Objective

The Senior Director, RF Development is responsible for a variety of tasks that include executing the company's overall technology vision for RF, managing the appropriate development methodologies, models, and tooling, and creating a team structure that will drive a high-performing development culture to deliver high-quality solutions to the Aviation industry. This leader will evaluate technology choices and options, collaborate with the business to identify risks and develop solutions. It requires extensive experience in designing and implementing RF Systems from vision through design, development, and testing to production ready. It requires a seasoned RF professional grown from hands-on experience and increasing responsibility who will use their passion and experience to deliver the outcomes in a variety of situations required by our business. Together, we will build a set of world-class systems that will help pave the way for the next generation of aircraft for integration into the rapidly evolving NextGen air traffic control environment. This role is not about coding, although a significant understanding of modern coding techniques, and cloud services (AWS, Azure) including general knowledge of cybersecurity, FedRamp requirements, and SRE/DevSecOps is also required. The desire and ability to design and develop transformational and innovative solutions in a highly regulated environment with efficiency, robustness, high resilience, and extreme focus on safety.

Primary Job Responsibilities

Own the technical delivery of the business vision for RF in our network across multiple use cases and products with an eye for efficiency and reuse of our platform. This responsibility includes research, gap identification, testing/evaluation, design, development, and support of operations.

Lead and manage the development of prototypical and commercial RF products and solutions, including vendor and internal development efforts. These could include radios, antennae, ground systems, and custom services in a variety of environments.

Develop and continually improve algorithms and modeling for RF services including link budgets, handover, waveform performance, interference, coexistence, path loss, and spectrum management.

Collaborate with other professionals to determine and document specifications for functional and non-functional requirements for the development of hardware, software, and applications.

Support business organizations by performing feasibility assessments/new opportunity vetting, RF analysis, data analysis, and innovating on the vision in real-time.

Support operations of the network by performing analysis of drive and flight test data to continually improve models and services and resolve operational challenges.

Support the development of standards, regulatory, security, and technical documentation based on Aviation and telecom industry requirements.

Lead and manage the development of the RF planning and optimization tools for network propagation modeling and coverage prediction, to support both the deployment and field RF teams.

Lead regulatory compliance with governmental mandates that rely on the radio environment providing policy and guidelines to field teams as it relates to spectrum concerns, coverage thresholds, and optimization techniques.

Determine and manage the RAN network performance objectives and RF-related KPIs to support AURA products and services.

Develop machine learning and self-optimization techniques to maximize resources and customer experience in a highly regulated environment.

Ensure developed solutions meet all requirements of capability, quality, security, modifiability, extensibility, and company policy.

Develop a high-performance culture within your team and with your peers using inclusive problem-solving, mentoring, and coaching – we all succeed together.

Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

Competencies, Skills, Abilities, Qualifications

Graduate degree in engineering or physics preferred, bachelor's degree required, and at least 10 years of relevant RF network research, design, and planning experience with a network service provider.

Experience with radar systems/sensors is highly desired.

Proven ability and desire to work in a startup environment with high accountability, ownership, rapid learning, and adaptation of process and technique. A bias for execution.

Proven capacity to manage changing priorities and thrive in ambiguity in a leadership role. Ability to maintain focus and direction through proactive planning and affiliative team coordination.

Excellent written and verbal communication skills with strong relationship-building skills.

Experience leading teams with direct and influential leadership in a modern organization.

Advocate for diversity of thought, team equity, and inclusion.

Technical depth in advanced RF design and techniques: research, design, modeling and theory, data analysis, network planning, design principles, and optimization.

Fully proficient in the set-up, calibration, utilization, and data processing of various wireless design/propagation and planning/optimization tools and software solutions.

Demonstrated ability to effectively use programming environments such as MATLAB or Python to develop engineering models and analyze data.

How we work – The Core Values That Define Our Culture

One AURA: By thinking beyond myself, my department, my product.

Entrepreneurial: A cutting-edge aviation technological environment focused on innovation, out-of-the-box ideas, and thinking

A collaborative team that both relies upon and supports each other.

Find a Better Way: For today and tomorrow (when we are twice the current size!)

Assume Positive Intent: Through interactions, healthy conflict, opportunities, and different points of view.

Driven to Exceed: We take pride in our work and exceed expectations.

Position Type and Expected Hours of Work

Full-time position. Core business hours are 9:00 am – 6:00 pm. The work can be done remotely or at the office. Must be available during core business hours. At times, may need to be available outside those hours based on business needs.

Travel

This position requires domestic travel for AURA’s all-staff quarterly planning meetings and may also require minimal domestic travel based on business needs.

Supervisory Responsibility

This position has some supervisory responsibility.

Physical Demands

The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the primary functions of this job.

While performing the duties of this job, the employee is regularly required to talk and hear. This position may require long periods of sitting and looking at a computer screen, using the phone and other technology. At times, may need to lift 15 plus pounds.

Additional Eligibility Qualifications

Must be able to get a background check and drug test.

Work Authorization

Must be a US Citizen or be a Green Card holder.

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