RF​/Antenna Design Engineer

Salary & Benefits

Salary: A salary range of £47,866 to £56,082, including a concessionary payment of £2,658, and a skills payment. The final amount depends on your skills and experience. You'll also receive a one-off recruitment bonus of £3,500 (£1,750 on arrival and £1,750 on successful completion of probation).

Flexible working:
We offer a range of flexible working patterns, including full‑time, part‑time, and compressed hours to support your individual needs. While homeworking isn't possible due to the nature of the role, we can offer flexibility, such as variations in start and finish times, where business needs allow.

As a Senior Radio Frequency (RF) Antenna Design Engineer, you'll work closely with our Principal RF Engineer on RF antenna design, while also contributing to wider electronic hardware design, research, and testing. As part of a mixed team of software, hardware, and Field‑Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) engineers, you'll work on projects ranging from embedded antenna design to propagation modelling.

Responsibilities span component‑level RF design involvement across the full lifecycle from design to delivery, identifying and helping to mitigate technical risks, and producing high‑quality design and test documentation. You'll also be involved in hardware Printed Circuit Board (PCB) and system‑level testing and verification, contributing to future antenna and RF technique research, developing and maintaining BASH/C wrapper helper scripts, and integrating with and testing a variety of capabilities.

The first three days of your time with us will be dedicated to a comprehensive department induction, designed to help you understand how things work and who does what. At GCHQ, we're committed to your growth and development. You'll have dedicated time and space for continuous learning, experimentation, and improvement, with up to 30% of your time available for personal development.

We'll support your professional development, including opportunities to gain accreditations such as Chartered Engineer (CEng) status if that's the route you wish to pursue.

You will also be assigned a buddy who will provide guidance and support throughout your time with us. Your training and ongoing support will be tailored to you, as you'll be working within a small team where development can be shaped around your needs. While most training is delivered in‑house, we also offer regular opportunities to top up your knowledge through external training providers.

You'll have the chance to either mentor a junior colleague or be mentored by someone more experienced, depending on what will best support your growth. Your learning will draw on the broad expertise across the team, and you'll also be encouraged to identify additional courses or learning opportunities that help deepen your knowledge in specific areas. Throughout your career here, you'll have continued access to the support and resources needed to pursue relevant accreditations, ensuring you can grow in the direction that's right for you.

You bring several years of experience in a similar role, preferably with practical experience in component‑level Antenna design. Your background may also include working on matching networks, filter design, PA or LNA analysis and specification or other component‑level electronic design. You also have:

• experience working with Vector Network Analysers and Smith Charts
• the ability to engage internal and external customers and work with other organisations
• a proactive mindset, with the motivation to spot opportunities, adapt quickly and learn new skills
• experience in successfully delivering projects from design to delivery

Experience with scripting and basic coding (BASH, Python or C on Microcontrollers), along with familiarity with Microsoft Office and ANSYS, is desirable but not essential. We'll provide comprehensive training to ensure you have the tools and knowledge you need to succeed.

• evidence of successfully delivering a technical project or piece of work
• extensive component‑level RF or Antenna Design experience
• experience with Vector Network Analysers and Smith Charts
• experience…