How long does it typically take to fill an RF or microwave role?

It depends heavily on seniority and clearance requirements. A mid-level RF design engineer without a clearance requirement can often be shortlisted within two to three weeks; cleared or principal-level roles, where the pool is smaller and notice periods longer, more commonly take six to ten weeks.

Should I hire for RF experience specifically, or general electronics experience and train up?

For most RF-specific roles, prior RF experience is worth the wait. The discipline has enough of its own theory, tooling and failure modes, impedance matching, EMC, thermal effects at high frequency, that a general electronics engineer typically needs a year or more to become genuinely productive on RF-specific work.

Do RF engineers usually need a security clearance?

Not always, but a large share of UK RF roles sit in defence, aerospace or space, where SC or higher clearance is standard. If a role doesn't strictly require clearance, being open to candidates who already hold one can meaningfully widen the pool, since cleared engineers often prefer to stay in cleared environments.

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Engineering & Technical

RF & Microwave recruitment

RF and microwave is one of the smallest, most specialised disciplines in UK electronics. The pool of deployable RF engineers is a fraction of the size of one like embedded software, and they rarely answer an advert, so the work is direct approach through a specialist network.

Inside the discipline the distinctions are sharp. An antenna designer, an RF systems engineer and someone who has spent a career on transceiver front-ends are different hires, as are a microwave engineer working on waveguide and a digital RF engineer working on SDR architectures. We take the brief at that level across defence, aerospace, space, telecoms and test and measurement, because it decides who belongs on the shortlist.

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What this covers

Antenna design
Microwave & mmWave circuit design
RF systems engineering
Transceiver & front-end design
Electronic warfare & signal processing
RF test & measurement

Roles we place

RF Design EngineerMicrowave EngineerAntenna Design EngineerRF Systems Engineer

What makes a strong RF & Microwave candidate

A strong RF or microwave candidate usually has hands-on experience with real test equipment, not just simulation: time on a vector network analyser, a spectrum analyser or in an anechoic chamber, alongside the modelling tools (ADS, CST, HFSS, AWR) that inform a design before it reaches the bench. Depth in one area, whether that's antenna design, mmWave circuit work or RF systems architecture, tends to matter more than broad but shallow exposure across the discipline. For defence and aerospace roles specifically, an existing security clearance, or clear eligibility for one, materially widens what a candidate can be considered for, since sponsorship timelines can otherwise add months to a start date. We also look for engineers who can explain a design trade-off in plain terms as well as in equations, since RF specialists are frequently the ones translating between a systems requirement and a physical implementation for the rest of an engineering team.

Where the talent sits

RF and microwave demand in the UK clusters heavily around the defence and aerospace supply chain: Cambridge, Bristol and the wider South West, and the Southampton/M27 corridor, home to primes and specialist RF houses. London pays a premium but has a shallower RF-specific talent pool than these regional clusters, so a search here is often more about knowing who's good in Bristol or Cambridge than who's applying from London. Remote and hybrid RF roles are also less common than in software-led disciplines, since lab access and specialist test equipment usually mean an on-site or near-site presence is expected.

Typical hiring timeline

For contract briefs we typically go from brief to contractor offered in about 5 days. That's the company-wide figure; niche or cleared roles take longer.

RF & Microwave hiring: frequently asked questions

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