Author: Alan Salari
1- Introduction
Radio frequency (RF) engineers play a vital role in many industries. These professionals belong to a particular sub-category of electrical engineers who deal primarily with RF hardware and components. RF engineers are in high demand for their specialized knowledge and skill set.
Such engineers typically design and implement products such as transceivers, RF chips, electronic warfare systems, and wireless devices. The it and Telecom sectors usually employ them. However, many RF engineers work in the aerospace and defense industries. Recently, quantum computing has expanded the number of exciting opportunities for RF engineers (check our article on essential skills for quantum hardware engineers).
There are estimated to be approximately 22,000 RF engineers in the United States, earning between $72,000 and $180,000 per year based on their skills, experience, company size, and region. If you are interested in becoming an RF engineer, you should familiarize yourself with the various roles they perform in different industries and the top skillsets for modern RF engineers.
RF Engineers generally fall into one of the following roles:
- Junior RF Engineer
- Senior RF Engineer
- Principal RF Engineer
Let’s examine each of these roles and what they entail.
2.1 Junior RF Engineer
Junior RF engineers typically hold a bachelor’s or master’s degree in electrical engineering, telecommunication engineering, or physics and have little or no working experience in the industry. These engineers work as a part of an RF hardware team and typically report to the senior RF engineer.
Junior RF engineers play a more hands-on role than their senior counterparts and spend most of their time in the lab testing and optimizing designs. This allows junior RF engineers to gain valuable practical experience by interacting with real-world systems and components, which prepares them for their future role as senior RF engineers with a deeper design understanding.
A typical day for a junior RF engineer involves designing, realizing, and testing RF components according to the specifications determined by the RF hardware team leader or the chief technology officer (CTO). These engineers must also become proficient in troubleshooting, detecting problems, and developing solutions.
Junior RF engineers may also be required to offer technical support to production teams to ensure RF components are designed, built, and tested according to specifications. Some employers may ask junior RF engineers to perform less hands-on roles such as creating technical documents, preparing presentations, and attending trade shows and marketing events.
Junior RF engineers typically make between $72,000 and $100,000 per year.
2.2 Senior RF Engineer
Senior RF engineers typically hold a master’s degree in electronics, telecommunications, or physics. These professionals are required to have 5+ years of industry experience and must have an excellent understanding of RF components and system design.
Senior RF engineers are expected to be creative problem solvers capable of integrating multiple disciplines. They are skilled at assessing risks and making design decisions, even without full data.
These engineers spend most of their time on the design of RF systems. This differs from the junior RF engineer’s role, which focuses on minor incremental updates, testing, and optimization of the system the senior RF engineer designed.
A Senior RF Engineer may occasionally work on hands-on tasks. However, their primary duties are more managerial. They lead hardware teams and delegate responsibilities between Junior RF engineers and technicians. They may also mentor Junior RF engineers at the company and help them develop their skill set.
Some senior RF engineers communicate directly with customers and prepare technical white papers, customer presentations, and proposals for senior management and clients.
Senior RF engineers typically make between $110,000 and $130,000 per year. Their pay grade is generally higher than that of junior engineers due to their extensive work experience and the managerial nature of their role.
Principal RF engineers typically hold a master’s or Ph.D. in electrical engineering or a related field. These professionals must possess at least 10+ years of industry experience and understand the complete hardware development cycle.
2.3 Principal RF Engineer
Principal RF Engineers hold companies’ highest RF engineering positions and are recognized as engineering authorities. They possess extensive practical experience working as engineers and report directly to the company’s senior management.
These professionals hold technical knowledge of RF components and system design, implementation, and testing. However, they focus primarily on advanced designs and technical strategic planning for their company. They set goals for their RF engineering department and perform a key role in meeting them.
Principal RF engineers share expertise and insight with other engineers working on the project and foster collaboration between departments.
Principal RF engineers typically make between $140,000 to $180,000. Some Principal RF engineers working at specific companies may earn less than senior RF engineers working at other companies. This difference in pay may occur due to the difference in company size, the region, and the number of members working on the company’s RF engineering team.
Conclusion
If they pursue a long career in this field, aspiring RF engineers will likely work in each of the abovementioned roles. However, they must ensure they possess the qualifications to be hired as RF engineers.
Quaxys offers skill-based RF courses to help bring RF engineers up to speed with vital RF concepts and hands-on training and impart the knowledge and skills they need to solve real-world problems in industry and research.
Our courses use a unique road map that accelerates learning and focuses on the primary training areas RF engineers require. We support participants with interactive online simulators, calculators, valuable PDF resources, and videos. We also offer RF educational kits in select courses to help engineers gain a more in-depth understanding of these concepts.