Field Test Engineer

Company

NextNav Inc. (Nasdaq: NN) was founded in 2007 and is headquartered in Reston, Virginia. NextNav is running a groundbreaking location service for smartphones, IOT, and other devices – an ability to determine floor-level altitude service across the country – a capability that does not exist at scale anywhere today! No longer constrained by legacy “flat earth” technologies, applications and users will be able to determine floor-level altitude, which is essential for navigation, user context and relevancy, and many other applications that are used indoors. NextNav is the highest precision Z-Axis solution proven in the marketplace today, and a person joining this team will have the ability to support a growing company and talented employees.

Position

This role combines RF engineering, wireless network troubleshooting, system validation, and customer-facing technical support. The successful candidate will work closely with Engineering, Network Operations, and Program Management to ensure the performance, reliability, and scalability of NextNav's positioning and timing services. You will have a critical role in defining and establishing mobile and fixed test setups, extensive RF receiver & RF test equipment testing and data collection in the live 5G PNT network and lab. You will be involved in all aspects of this important field work, including test plan development and documentation, test logistics planning, data collection, real-time trouble shooting, capturing and processing data logs, data analysis, and test reports/documentation.

The ideal candidate enjoys hands-on technical work, thrives in dynamic environments, and is comfortable working independently in the field while collaborating with cross-functional teams.

Responsibilities

• Create test plans, execute the plans, and document outcomes in test reports
• Understand system error sources, the operation of test platforms and field test methodology to facilitate error analysis
• Modify the test platform and analysis tools for testing needs working with Systems, HW and SW teams
• Analyze results and summarize conclusions
• Documentation including test details, results and observations

Desired Skills & Experience

Required:

• Bachelor’s degree in telecommunications, electrical engineering, computer science or related discipline
• 5+ years’ experience in field testing using wireless device and systems
• Good logical and analytical reasoning, troubleshooting skills and ability to proactively pursue solutions without significant supervision needed
• Ability to work in a team, be collaborative, demonstrate good verbal and written communication skills
• Willingness to conduct extensive testing in the field for many days in a row, often as the lone individual doing the testing
• Self-awareness and ability to carry oneself professionally as a representative of NextNav when talking to third parties (building owners, shop owners, security professionals, etc.) during test activities that involve testing in or near facilities such as hotels, parking garages, coffee shops, public parks, etc.
• Detail oriented, efficient, proactive, self-driven and learning oriented
• 5 days per week onsite in the Santa Clara office

Preferred:

• Hands-on experience in the lab with HW/SW interfacing such as connecting through serial/network interfaces, operating/controlling lab equipment such as oscilloscopes, spectrum analyzers, network analyzers, RF sniffing equipment.
• Basic understanding of cellular/wireless communication systems
• Basic understanding of navigation and location technology such as GNSS
• Basic understanding and usage of Python/Matlab.
• Comfortable interfacing with the teams across India, Canada and USA

Physical Demands

• Required to spend time outside the office driving to test locations, driving test routes, moving equipment from the car to a test set up that may be a long distance from the car (inside a building on any floor or outside) while ensuring your own safety and the security of the equipment.

Work Environment

• Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable people with disabilities to perform the essential functions of the position.

Miscellaneous

• Might need to occasionally interact with international teams outside Pacific Standard time zone office hours.
• Valid driver license required to facilitate driving/testing at field locations.
• Additional duties as assigned.