Senior Radio Frequency Engineer

About Plessey Photonics

We’re building the hardware foundation for next-era computing.

Plessey Photonics Systems is built on our existing technology capabilities at Plessey, a world-leading technology company driving the next generation of photonic devices and systems. With over seventy years of innovation, we combine research, materials science, process engineering, and manufacturing capabilities. Plessey Photonics Systems is defining next-generation optical interconnect technologies.

Join us to work on breakthrough technologies shaping the future of light-based technology and computing

Location

Based in Oxford

Our Values

Lead

We don’t follow industry trends; we create them, pushing boundaries and setting standards others aspire to. Every team member has the power to make decisions, drive change, and deliver excellence. We support each other, challenge one another for the best solutions, and lead by example. Together, we build industries and technologies that shape the future and scale toward our vision of the next era of computing.

Grow

We expand our capabilities every day — deepening our expertise, improving how we work, and pushing the boundaries of what’s possible. Curiosity fuels us: we question assumptions, explore new ideas, and innovate with light-based technologies. By investing in and empowering our people, we strengthen Plessey’s impact and help shape the future of optical technology.

Trust

We operate like a family—honest, reliable, and supportive. We have each other’s backs, own our actions, and uphold the highest standards of integrity and safety. We trust each other to deliver, our customers to challenge us, and our expertise to guide the way. Together, trust enables the collaboration essential for breakthrough innovation and lasting impact.

About the Role

We are looking for a Senior RF Engineer to own the high-speed electronic interfaces in our optical interconnect development — the analogue signal path between our drive electronics and the optical source, and the receive chain from photodetector to TIA.

This is a central role in the programme. Achieving high data rates depends on the quality of the RF path to and from the optical path.

We would ideally like this role to reach beyond the RF signal path. As we build the team, there is real value in an engineer who can also contribute to broader electronic design — schematic capture, PCB layout management, power and voltage-regulator design, and FPGA integration. These broader skills are desirable rather than essential, and the balance of the role can flex to suit the right candidate.

It is a hands-on, bench top role for an engineer who is as comfortable at the vector network analyser and the probe station as at the schematic and layout management.

Key Responsibilities

• Design the analogue high-speed signal path from the drive electronics to the optical source, including driver circuitry, biasing, high-speed serial interfacing, and impedance matching.
• Evaluate, select, and qualify high-speed driver components against the relevant interface, bandwidth, and drive requirements.
• Design controlled-impedance, differential RF/microwave PCBs, managing trace geometry, return paths, via structures, and launch design.
• Own signal integrity across the full electrical path, minimising packaging and interconnect parasitics that limit achievable data rate.
• Design and characterise the optical receive chain, including photodetector and TIA, with layout optimised for low noise and sensitivity.
• Apply and tune transmit and receive equalisation to extend usable bandwidth.
• Carry out S-parameter measurement, eye-diagram and jitter analysis, and high-speed probing to separate intrinsic device performance from packaging effects.
• Build and maintain RF link budgets, and translate findings into structured feedback for the device and photonics teams.
• Where experience allows, contribute to the wider electronic design — schematic capture, PCB layout, power and voltage-regulator design, and FPGA integration and bring-up while the team grows.
• Document results and contribute to the characterisation data that drives design iteration.

Experience & Attributes

• Degree (BEng/MEng) or PhD in Electronic Engineering, RF/Microwave Engineering, Physics, or a related field, with substantial relevant experience at senior level (typically 6+ years).
• Proven RF/microwave PCB design: controlled impedance, differential pairs, via management, and launch design at high frequencies.
• High-speed serial interfaces, including AC coupling and biasing for high-speed signal paths.
• Evaluating and qualifying high-speed driver and amplifier components.
• S-parameter (VNA) measurement, calibration, and high-speed probing.
• Signal-integrity simulation (for example HyperLynx, Ansys SI, ADS, or similar).
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills, and the discipline to work to a measured link budget.

Advantage

• Broader schematic capture and board design using eCAD tools such as Altium, across digital and mixed-signal designs beyond the RF path.
• Power electronics and voltage-regulator design (linear and switching), and power-integrity analysis.
• FPGA circuit-level integration and bring-up.
• Board-level architecture and full-lifecycle electronic design — architect, design, implement, and verify.
• Digital video interfacing (for example HDMI) or comparable high-bandwidth digital protocols.
• Photodetector / TIA receive-chain design and an understanding of high-speed eye-margin trade-offs.
• Hardware bring-up, verification, and characterisation across mixed-signal designs.
• A proven track record of delivering high-speed electronics into production.