High Power Radio Frequency Engineer (R&D Engineer 1 or 2)

at  Los Alamos National Laboratory

R&D ENGINEER 1 ($92,300 - $151,000)

As a member of the AOT-RFE high power RF Engineering team, the successful candidate, working closely with other engineers, technologists and technicians, will contribute to the operation, troubleshooting, and maintenance of the LANSCE high power RF (HPRF) systems, including high-voltage power supplies and associated electronics, and high-power RF test stand operation and upgrade.
The position will also involve working under the direction of senior engineers to plan and implement RF system upgrades as part of the LANSCE Modernization Project ("LAMP"), e.g. Radio Frequency Quadrupole accelerator tetrode amplifier system, Thyristor crowbar as ignitron replacement, Solid State RF amplifier development for UHF and for low frequencies (1-10 MHz).
The successful candidate will also provide on-call support for the LANSCE high power RF systems after hours and on weekends. The on-call assignment will typically be for one week per month during accelerator operations (approximately 7 months per year). New employees will go through a training period prior to being placed on-call (typically 1 year).

JOB REQUIREMENTS FOR R&D ENGINEER 1:

• Demonstrated ability to read and understand schematics.
• Demonstrated undergraduate training in electrical engineering fields that support competency in microwave engineering such as high-voltage and pulsed-power engineering, RF power amplifiers and transmitters, DC and pulsed-power systems, microwave and RF components, or RF transport systems such as waveguide and coaxial lines.
• Demonstrated experience in effectively producing written documents and successful oral communication skills.

Additional Job Requirements for R&D Engineer 2: In addition to the requirements outlined above, qualification at the higher level requires:

• Demonstrated record of contributions to the design, development, testing, and installation of high-power RF amplifier systems using solid state VMOS, LDMOS, or GaN devices, high-power RF amplifiers based on gridded vacuum tubes, along with associated high-voltage or high-current pulsed DC power delivery technologies.
• Demonstrated experience working as part of a team to develop RF amplifier and/or pulsed DC power delivery systems.
• Demonstrated recent and successful hands-on experience troubleshooting, installing, and testing of high-power RF or pulsed power systems.

Education/Experience at R&D Engineer 1 level: Position requires a bachelor’s degree in engineering from an ABET accredited institution related to the occupation combined with 2 years of related experience.
Education/Experience at R&D Engineer 2 level: Position requires a bachelor’s degree in engineering from an ABET accredited institution and 4 years of related experience; or an equivalent combination of education and experience directly related to the occupation.
Desired Qualifications:

Desired Qualifications:

• Experience with RF, high-voltage DC, and pulsed-power systems.
• Experience with CAD software
• Experience with computer-based circuit layout simulation (PSpice, Multisim, LTSPice, etc.)
• Experience with NI LabView and LabView/FPGA programming.
• Experience with matrix algebra and block diagram simulation software (Matlab/Simulink, Scilab/Xcos, etc.).
• Operations experience at an accelerator facility.

Essential Job Functions (can perform with or without reasonable accommodation): Ability to speak, ability to hear in a normal range, standing, walking, reaching overhead, reaching horizontally, reaching down, gripping with hands, typing or keyboarding.
Note to Applicants: Consideration for the position will be strictly limited to applicants that submit a comprehensive cover letter addressing, bullet by bullet, each of the required and desired skills.

The Accelerator Operations and Technology Division (AOT), Radio Frequency Engineering (RFE) group is seeking an RF power engineer.
The AOT division maintains, operates, and upgrades all accelerator systems used at the Los Alamos Neutron Science Center (LANSCE) complex. These consist of two 750-keV Cockcroft-Walton-based injector systems (H+ and H- systems), a 201.25-MHz drift tube linear accelerator utilizing LDMOS transistors, tetrodes and higher-power diacrode tubes, an 805-MHz coupled cavity linac utilizing klystrons as the primary power source, a proton storage ring, and roughly a kilometer of beam transport lines that feed beam to the five independent research programs. The RFE group is principally responsible for all RF systems, pulsed power systems, and high-power DC power supplies used to operate magnets on the beam transport lines. Low-level RF (LLRF) control and monitoring of the various RF sources used to drive the beam is critical to the high performance and successful operation of the accelerator.
This position will be filled at the R&D Engineer 1 or the R&D Engineer 2 level, depending on the skills of the selected candidate. Additional job responsibilities (outlined below) will be assigned if the candidate is hired at the higher level.