Senior RF Engineer
Snowcap ComputeJob Title
Senior RF Engineer
Role Summary
Design and deliver the RF power delivery network (PDN) that carries microwave power from room temperature to a chip at cryogenic temperatures. You will own architecture, simulation, circuit design, validation tapeouts, and cold measurements, working directly with physics, digital/EDA, fab technology, and test teams.
Experience Level
Senior — 7+ years of hands-on RF work in product development, including tapeouts at mmWave frequencies.
Responsibilities
Lead technical work across system architecture, design, verification, and measurement for RF PDN components and integration.
- Define PDN architecture, budgets, specs, and verification plans from room temperature to 4.2 K.
- Design and simulate passive and active RF circuits across ~30–60 GHz using ADS, AWR/Microwave Office, HFSS/CST, Spectre RF, Clarity, and Python/MATLAB.
- Design, verify, and tape out RF PDN validation chips and integrate PDN structures into product tapeouts.
- Develop and run lab validation: VNA, spectrum analyzer, signal generators, power meters, and automated test; correlate measurements to simulation.
- Lead root-cause analysis across lab and production and drive fixes into design, layout, or process.
- Work with digital design and EDA to make RF PDN a first-class object in automated flows and mentor junior engineers in reviews and documentation.
Requirements
Must-have technical skills and experience for immediate contribution.
- Proven RF passive and MMIC tapeouts at ≥30 GHz in advanced CMOS nodes — hard requirement.
- Deep understanding of S-parameters, matching, stability, noise, nonlinearity, intermodulation, and transmission lines.
- Track record designing and debugging LNAs, PAs, mixers, VCO/PLL, switches, filters, and couplers through to working hardware.
- Fluency with RF instrumentation and lab work; strong practical skills with Cadence Virtuoso/Pegasus, Python, and Git.
- Strong technical writing and cross-disciplinary communication skills to present trade-offs to physicists, digital designers, and fab engineers.
- Ability to run cryogenic test campaigns and work hands-on in RF and cryogenic labs; occasional travel for suppliers, foundry, and external test.
- Nice-to-have: familiarity with superconducting microwave circuits.
Education Requirements
BS in Electrical Engineering or RF/microwave engineering required; MS or PhD welcomed. The role expects senior-level, practical RF engineering experience (7+ years) in product development and tapeouts.
About the Company
Company: Snowcap Compute
Headquarters: San Francisco, CA, United States
Snowcap Compute develops commercial superconducting digital computers using Josephson junction–based PCL logic that operate at cryogenic temperatures, aiming for dramatically lower power than CMOS. The company combines expertise in quantum physics, cryogenic engineering, and semiconductor manufacturing to build production superconducting chips.
