RF Expert (m/f/d)

We say HI* 

Thales in Germany is part of an internationally leading technology group in the defence and security, aerospace as well as cyber security and digital identity markets.  

Say HI* – to your career as

RF expert (m/f/d)

In Ditzingen #LI-HYBRID

In Ditzingen, you will encounter security solutions for monitoring and safeguarding borders and for border controls, protection of civil and military facilities and tactical communication. This is the right place for you if you want to work with us on practical highly mobile radars for ground and coastal monitoring or night vision goggles and multifunctional heat imaging equipment. Join the Thales expert team for radar, optronic vision systems for armoured military vehicles or for protecting the field camps of the German Armed Forces. We are happy to have you on board!  

As RF / Front-End Engineer you own the analog heart of our radar sensor: you architect and design the complete RF transmit and receive front-end – from the antenna interface through low-noise reception, coherent frequency generation and up-/down-conversion to the data-converter interface that feeds the digital processing chain. You are responsible for the signal integrity, phase coherence and dynamic range that ultimately define the system's detection range, clutter suppression and Doppler performance.

Your mission as RF expert (m/f/d):

• RF architecture & system design
  • Define the front-end architecture and the overall frequency plan, including spur and image analysis
  • Establish the RF link budget: cascaded noise figure, sensitivity, gain distribution, compression and intermodulation, and end-to-end dynamic range
  • Derive RF requirements from system-level radar parameters (range, waveform, PRF, instrumented Doppler, sub-clutter visibility)

• Streaming & data movement
  • Design zero-copy / DMA-based ingest paths from FPGA-based front-ends into GPU memory
  • Build deterministic, real-time-capable streaming pipelines including buffering, backpressure handling and precise time-stamping

• Transmit & receive chain design
  • Design the receive chain: LNA, mixing/conversion stages, IF/baseband filtering, gain control (AGC) and receiver protection/limiting
  • Design the transmit chain: up-conversion, driver and power-amplifier stages, pulse modulation and T/R switching with sufficient transmit–receive isolation
  • Design the data-converter interface (ADC/DAC) including anti-alias and reconstruction filtering, matching and clocking
• Frequency generation & coherence
  • Design the frequency synthesis for a fully coherent system
  • Optimize phase noise and timing/clock jitter as the key levers for MTI/Doppler improvement factor and sub-clutter visibility
• Layout, integration & bring-up
  • Lead board bring-up and integration with antenna and digital front-end

We are looking forward to:

• Completed technical studies, e.g. in computer science or electronical engineering

• Solid hands-on RF/microwave front-end design experience (LNA, mixer, PA, filter, conversion stages)

• Strong command of RF system design: link budget, cascaded noise figure, dynamic range, compression and intermodulation

• Frequency synthesis and low-phase-noise design (LO generation/distribution, coherent clocking)

• Experience with RF measurement and characterization (VNA, spectrum/signal/phase-noise analyzers, noise-figure measurement)

• Experience with radar front-ends and coherent / pulse-Doppler systems advantageous

• RF/mixed-signal PCB design and EM/signal-integrity awareness; RF simulation tools (e.g. ADS, AWR, EM solvers) advantageous

• Understanding of high-speed data converters and their RF interface (sampling, clocking, jitter) advantageous

• Familiarity with fundamentals of digital signal processing as it relates to the front-end (filtering, sampling, Doppler/MTI) advantageous

• Python/MATLAB for modeling, validation and tooling advantageous

• Strong team and communication skills in a small, interdisciplinary prototyping team

• Analytical and structured way of thinking and working

• Self-directed, proactive working style with a high level of ownership

• Performance-driven engineering mindset paired with disciplined, measurable optimization

• Pragmatic, hands-on prototyping mindset – willingness to iterate fast and learn from hardware

• Willingness to travel for integration and measurement campaigns (~15%)

• Very good German and English skills

The Group invests more than €4,5 billion per year in Research & Development in key areas, particularly for critical environments, such as Artificial Intelligence, cybersecurity, quantum and cloud technologies.  

In 2025, the Group generated sales of €22.1 billion. 
 
For our more than 85,000 employees in 65 countries we open up visionary perspectives, realise individual career paths and enable creative freedom. This is achieved with courage, versatility and the firm intention to make the demanding challenges of our time safer and more inclusive. With our sustainable value-focused management we support diversity actively. 

Say HI* – Your journey to us 

At times of change our international teams are ready to meet the complexity of today with the industry-leading technologies of tomorrow. Will you be part of it? Your Talent Acquisition contact Maria Gaissert  is looking forward to your online application.

Maria Gaissert – Talent Acquisition Partnerin #LI-MG1

+49 172 8281399

*Human Intelligence