Near Field Test and Automation Lead

Why Castelion, Why Now 

Castelion is moving incredibly fast to develop and deliver advanced defense systems at a time when execution matters more than ever. We believe focus, ownership, and excellence are decisive advantages - and we're building a world-class team to turn bold ideas into real capability. 

This is a rare opportunity to join at an early stage, where you'll have significant ownership, collaborate with exceptional teammates, and make a direct, measurable impact on our mission and the future of the company - regardless of your function.  

Near Field Test and Automation Lead

We are looking for a Senior Antenna Test Engineer to own the development, automation, and production operation of our near-field antenna test systems across R&D and high-rate manufacturing.

You will be the technical owner of our near-field test farm, responsible for scaling existing test automation to support mass production while improving test speed, reliability, data quality, and system uptime. You will work at the intersection of antenna measurement, phased-array systems, software, data infrastructure, and production hardware.

This is a highly hands-on role for an engineer who wants to own a system end-to-end and solve difficult problems where hardware, software, data, and production come together.

Responsibilities

• Serve as the technical owner for near-field antenna test systems used across R&D and mass production.
• Scale and optimize existing near-field test automation for a high-volume production environment, with a focus on throughput, reliability, and test time.
• Adapt near-field test systems and automation to support new products and evolving production requirements.
• Develop automated monitoring and validation of near-field data products.
• Analyze test data to diagnose, triage, and resolve quality issues and test failures.
• Develop and maintain antenna calibration data products and drive continuous improvement in calibration quality.
• Build standardized visualization and analysis tools for near-field data.
• Develop production-ready workflows that enable technicians to independently operate the near-field test farm, including:
  • Test execution
  • Test set and equipment calibration
  • Safety procedures
  • Power failure recovery
  • Equipment troubleshooting
  • Production readiness and system health monitoring
• Develop software and tooling with appropriate testing, version control, and CI/CD practices.
• Partner closely with data infrastructure, radar software, radar hardware, manufacturing, and other engineering teams to integrate and continuously improve the test environment.
• Own the technical response to unexpected test results and production issues, driving rapid root-cause analysis and corrective action.

Basic Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering, RF Engineering, Antenna Engineering, or a related technical field.
• 5+ years of professional engineering experience in antenna measurement, RF test, radar, or related systems.
• Direct hands-on experience with near-field antenna measurements and antenna test systems.
• Strong understanding of phased-array antennas and array signal processing.
• Strong Python programming skills and experience developing engineering software or automation.
• Experience developing software in a production environment, including Git/GitHub, automated testing, and CI/CD.
• Experience working with RF test equipment and diagnosing hardware/test-system issues.
• Demonstrated ability to analyze test data, troubleshoot failures, and drive problems to root cause.
• Strong cross-functional communication skills and ability to work effectively across hardware, software, data, and manufacturing teams.

Preferred Skills and Experience

• Experience taking antenna or RF test systems from R&D into high-rate production.
• Experience designing, scaling, or operating automated near-field test infrastructure.
• Experience optimizing automated test systems for throughput, uptime, reliability, and test time.
• Experience developing automated test-data validation, monitoring, visualization, and quality-control tools.
• Experience with antenna calibration and development/validation of antenna calibration data products.
• Experience with phased-array radar, electronically scanned arrays, or other complex RF sensing systems.
• Experience troubleshooting production quality issues using large-scale test data.
• Experience building technician-operated test processes, including equipment calibration, test-set calibration, recovery procedures, and production troubleshooting.
• Experience with SQL/PostgreSQL and production data pipelines.
• Familiarity with RF laboratory equipment such as VNAs, spectrum analyzers, signal generators, power meters, and related instrumentation.
• Experience working in a fast-paced hardware development or manufacturing environment with a strong production-first mindset.
• Experience owning a complex technical system end-to-end, from initial development through production deployment and continuous improvement.

Castelion offers a generous benefits package. Please refer to the bottom of our Careers page for more details.  

Other Duties 

Please note this job description is not designed to cover or contain a comprehensive listing of activities, duties or responsibilities that are required of the employee for this job. Duties, responsibilities and activities may change at any time with or without notice. 

Additional Eligibility Requirements 

This position may require access to classified information or restricted U.S. Government sites, systems, or information, as determined by the Company and/or applicable U.S. Government requirements. If the position is so designated, your employment in the role may be contingent upon your ability to obtain and maintain the required U.S. Government security clearance or other government authorization, and to satisfy any citizenship or other eligibility requirements imposed by applicable law, regulation, executive order, or government contract requirements. You will be notified if and when such requirements apply. 

Affirmative Action/EEO Statement 

Castelion is an Equal Opportunity Employer. We are committed to providing equal employment opportunities to all applicants and employees without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, disability, genetic information, protected veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by applicable federal, state, or local law. 

Castelion is committed to providing reasonable accommodations to qualified individuals with disabilities throughout the application and hiring process. If you require a reasonable accommodation to complete an application, participate in the interview process, or otherwise participate in the hiring process, please contact [email protected]. Requests for accommodation will be considered on an individual basis and handled in accordance with applicable law. 

Castelion is committed to fostering a workplace where employment decisions are based on qualifications, business needs, and the ability to perform the essential functions of the role, with or without reasonable accommodation. 

EAR/ITAR Requirements 

This position requires access to export-controlled information, and as such, employment (or hiring of a contractor) is contingent upon the candidate’s ability to access all applicable export-controlled information without additional export licensing being required by the Bureau of Industry and Security and/or the Directorate of Defense Trade Controls.