Ex-military personnel opportunity in cutting-edge SATCOM
Category: Recruitment
Publish date: 02/11/2021
You’ve been all over the world and done all the UHF SATCOM, HF and VHF courses, got your hands dirty and honed your skills, and now you’re asking yourself: Is any of this transferrable? The answer is a big "yes",” says ex-Royal Corps of Signals comms system operator, Gareth Barnes. And now Hanwha Phasor’s have opened up a brand-new Field Technician vacancy where the successful candidate will be responsible for maintaining, repairing and developing RF test facilities for the development of cutting-edge commercial electronically-steered arrays.
About Hanwha Phasor’s radical departure from parabolic antennas
Hanwha Phasor has designed the world’s first ultra-low profile, very high performance, active electronically-steered antenna (AESAs) for satellite communications on the move – in flight, on land, or at sea.
Marking a radical departure from traditional parabolic reflectors, our solid-state flat-panel technology is set to occupy a powerful position in the evolving satcom terminal ecosystem, particularly in the race for Low-Earth orbit connectivity.
Our technology came to life with Phasor Solutions, a start-up. Since then we’ve scaled up to become Hanwha Phasor, with the full support of our parent company Hanwha Systems, the Korean IT, defence and aerospace giant with big ambitions in New Space. We’re carrying out full lifecycle testing in our central London and outdoor test ranges at system-integration level and entering our pre-production phase with a Tier 1 contract electronics manufacturer, Plexus.
We’re all family here
The successful candidate will be collaborating across the operations team and working closely with Gareth Barnes. He’s the former British Army communications system operator who thoroughly overhauled the ex-start-up’s test operations when it was taken on by the massive Hanwha Systems group in June 2020. This is his first role since leaving the service 18 months ago.
“Look, I’ve been in your shoes,” he says. “You’ve been all over the world and done all the UHF SATCOM, HF and VHF courses, got your hands dirty and honed your skills, and now you’re asking yourself: Is any of this transferrable? The answer is a big ‘yes’.”
Field Technician – what’s involved
The new Field Technician role involves maintaining RF test facilities while continuously improving design, test and calibration methods; supporting antenna system field testing for internal and external customer demonstrations; periodically calibrating and self-checking test equipment; and recording findings, collaborating across systems, hardware and other engineering departments to resolve test equipment issues.
Essential experience
- Three+ years’ experience in RF and terrestrial communications
- RF and integration of test equipment
- Competent use of test equipment including scopes, spectrum analysers, PNAs, VNAs, signal generators and power meters
- Good verbal communications skills
- The drive to keep learning.
Why us?
Barnes goes onto explain why ex-Service personnel really fit in at Hanwha Phasor.
Be the best – sound familiar?
“First – most Service personnel just want to be the best. If you want to launch yourself into one of the hottest, highest growth sectors out there, SATCOM is it.
"Then there’s our antenna. If you want to work at the cutting edge, this is for you. Our electronically-steered antenna is the first of its kind – a proper, high quality, enterprise-grade flat panel array that’s already attracting significant interest from the military as well as commercial service providers.
"The supply chain is already committed – a great indicator of industry confidence in the business: On the strength of our technology demos to date, we’re already signed up with one of the world’s most prestigious contract electronics manufacturers.
"And look, there’s plenty of investment here – whatever we want, we get. In the quest for reliability, we get the best, often customised kit.”
And work with the best
Above all, he says, it’s the people. “The knowledge and expertise of our design and systems engineers is just amazing. I came in with very little knowledge, if any, of phased arrays, the market and civvy SAT systems; yet I’ve been able to take off in leaps and bounds with the assistance of these guys. That’s what makes this a business I want to work for: no one is ever too busy to help each other out.
"Like a regiment, we’re family; all driving to one goal, everyone helping each other out along the way. It’s a great feeling.”
Is this you?
Hanwha Phasor is looking for something that comms specialists from across the services can contribute. “You’re end-users who can bridge the gap between the textbook and real-world usage.”
Looking back on his career, he recalls those exercises where things didn’t go smoothly: “You’ve had stuff that’s broken, thousands of miles from home, no tech support and spares unavailable; and yet you made it work. That’s why those reading this can have confidence that they’ll fit in here. With some mil SATCOM behind you, that experience will really count.”
Hanwha Phasor also prizes individuals who are willing to learn: “We don’t mind if it takes you two days or two weeks to learn something. We’re looking for people who are curious and determined, who like to think for themselves but who are never afraid to ask for help when they need it. And speaking from experience, you’ll never lack support here.”
Barnes has a big brief. He’s honing tech demos for the current product Ku band, GEO release, but is also having to think ahead to building facilities that will be ready for the next big push to Ka band and aircraft antenna for LEO constellations: “This is a great time to be with the business. Some of the heavy lifting on facilities has been done but we now need practical help to get to the next level.”
Benefits – rival the best aerospace and defence companies
- Competitive salary
- Bonus scheme
- Contributory pension
- Life insurance at 4x salary
- Private medical insurance
- WeCare – access to 24/7 online GP
- 25 days’ holiday (plus recognised public holidays) and holiday purchase scheme
- Flexible working
- Excellent training – continuing professional development to drive your career
- Season ticket loan
- Cycle-to-work scheme
Links
Far-field results from the lab We obtain true far-field results for full array using Hanwha Phasor’s world-class spherical near-field scanner.
Further information on Hanwha Phasor test facilities.
And the best part is we’re working directly with Career Transition Partnership to help Service leavers transition smoothly from the service into life with Hanwha Phasor. So if all of the above sounds like something you’d be interested in, head over to CTP’s online job portal RightJob to apply:
N408743 London - £30,000 -£35,000