Principal Mixed-Signal Design Engineer, Data Converters

K2 Space Corporation builds high-power satellites for missions spanning low Earth orbit to deep space. The company is seeking a Principal Mixed-Signal Design Engineer, Data Converters to lead the architecture, circuit design, integration, and silicon validation of wideband, high-performance data converters and analog front-ends for advanced mixed-signal SoCs.

Responsibilities:

• Architect and design high-speed, wideband ADCs and DACs targeting demanding RF and mixed-signal applications
• Lead converter architecture selection and trade studies, balancing bandwidth, sampling rate, resolution/ENOB, linearity, power, area, and implementation risk
• Design supporting wideband analog front-ends, including ADC input networks, track-and-hold/sampling circuits, DAC output stages, references, biasing, clocking, and calibration circuitry
• Develop high-performance circuits in advanced FinFET CMOS technologies and address the unique analog design challenges associated with deeply scaled nodes
• Own designs from concept and behavioral modeling through transistor-level implementation, layout, verification, and silicon characterization
• Develop calibration and correction techniques for impairments and work closely with DSP/systems engineers on mixed-signal algorithms
• Define converter specifications and interfaces in collaboration with systems, RF, digital, package, and verification teams
• Drive converter integration into complex mixed-signal SoCs, including power, clocking, signal integrity, and physical implementation considerations
• Help establish data-converter design methodologies, IP, simulation infrastructure, and best practices from the ground up
• Provide technical leadership and mentorship to analog and mixed-signal engineers

Requirements:

• MS or PhD in Electrical Engineering or related field with significant industry experience in high-performance analog/mixed-signal IC design
• Deep expertise designing GHz-class and/or multi-GS/s ADCs and DACs
• Strong understanding of converter architectures such as SAR, pipeline, time-interleaved, flash/folding, current-steering DACs, and hybrid architectures
• Demonstrated ability to translate system requirements into converter architectures and circuit-level specifications
• Strong experience with wideband analog/RF signal paths, sampling circuits, clocking, references, and low-noise/high-linearity circuit design
• Experience designing high-performance analog circuits in FinFET technologies
• Strong understanding of converter impairments, including jitter, noise, distortion, mismatch, timing skew, interleaving errors, and calibration
• Experience taking complex analog/mixed-signal ICs from architecture through tapeout and silicon bring-up
• Deep proficiency with industry-standard analog/mixed-signal design, simulation, and verification tools
• The person hired for this role must therefore either be a “U.S. person” as defined by 22 C.F.R. § 120.15 or otherwise eligible for a federally issued export control license
• Experience with RF-sampling or direct-RF ADC/DAC architectures
• Experience developing converters with multi-GHz instantaneous bandwidth
• Experience with digitally assisted analog design and background/foreground calibration
• Experience integrating converters into large digital-heavy SoCs
• Experience with advanced packaging, high-speed I/O, and signal-integrity considerations for wideband mixed-signal devices
• Experience helping build new methodologies and silicon platforms from the ground up