Datalink Integration & Test Engineer – Communications / MANET (all genders)

STARK is a new kind of defence technology company revolutionizing the way autonomous systems are deployed across multiple domains. We design, develop, and manufacture high-performance unmanned systems that are software-defined, mass-scalable, and cost-effective. This provides our operators with a decisive edge in highly contested environments.

We’re focused on delivering deployable, high-performance systems—not future promises. In a time of rising threats, STARK is bolstering the technological edge of NATO Allies and their Partners to deter aggression and defend Europe—today.

As a Datalink Integration & Test Engineer , you will play a key role in bringing together complex software systems that power our next generation of autonomous platforms. 

Your mission is to take established, proven MANET (mobile ad-hoc network) radio systems and make them work — reliably, repeatably, and under real-world constraints — inside our unmanned platforms. In this role you focus on the datalinks for our close- and short-range loitering effector and ISR systems, where the link has to stay solid through fast-moving, time-critical mission profiles in contested airspace. You own the path from "commercial radio in a box" to "integrated, tested, mission-ready datalink."

This is a hands-on integration and test role at the boundary of RF hardware, networking, and platform architecture. You own two connections that have to hold up when it counts: the command-and-control link between UAV and ground control station (GCS), and the mesh that lets multiple effectors operate as a coordinated swarm. You aren't just wiring in a radio; you are certifying that command and control survives contact with the real world, and giving the engineering team the hard data to trust it.

Integration

• Integrate established MANET / mesh radio systems (e.g., Silvus StreamCaster, Persistent Systems Wave Relay, Rajant, Radionor) into STARK's platform architecture across the mechanical, power, RF, and network/software interfaces.
• Define and implement the integration approach for each datalink — antenna placement, RF front-end, IP networking, and interfacing with the autopilot and payload stack.
• Integrate and configure the UAV-to-GCS command-and-control link, ensuring reliable telemetry, control, and video across the full mission profile through to the terminal phase.
• Set up and tune multi-node mesh topologies that enable UAV-to-UAV connectivity and coordinated swarm operation of multiple effectors, including relay and self-healing behaviour.
• Work closely with hardware, autopilot, and systems engineering to ensure the communication subsystem is correctly matched to the platform and its constraints.

Test & Validation

• Design and execute structured test campaigns — bench, hardware-in-the-loop, and field trials — to validate datalink behaviour.
• Characterise link performance across throughput, latency, range, mesh routing behaviour, and resilience under interference and degraded conditions.
• Validate swarm behaviour at the network level — multi-node mesh scaling, UAV-to-UAV and UAV-to-GCS connectivity, relay hops, and graceful degradation as nodes join, move, or drop out.
• Build up repeatable test procedures and instrumentation, and produce clear, traceable documentation of setups, methods, and results.

Collaboration & Continuous Improvement

• Translate field and test findings into concrete integration and configuration improvements.
• Support trade-offs and selection decisions between candidate datalink systems with measured, defensible data.
• Contribute to the evolution of STARK's communication integration standards and test methodology.

Experience & Certifications

• Professional background in Electronics / Communications Engineering or a comparable technical field.
• Hands-on experience integrating MANET / mesh radio or tactical datalink systems into a larger platform or system.
• Practical test and measurement experience (spectrum analysers, RF link testing, network diagnostics).
• Must be a citizen of a NATO member state (due to export control and security regulations).

Technical Background

• Solid grounding in RF fundamentals and antenna/propagation basics.
• Strong understanding of IP networking, routing, and the OSI model as it applies to mesh and point-to-point links.
• Comfortable working in Linux networking environments and debugging at the hardware/software boundary.
• Structured, disciplined approach to test design, execution, and documentation.

Profile

• Strong written and verbal communication skills in English.
• Analytical, thorough, and outcome-oriented — you want the integration to be clean and the results to hold up, not just to work once.

• Hands-on experience with specific MANET vendor ecosystems and their management/config tooling.
• Knowledge of tactical datalink bands, waveforms, FHSS, and encryption.
• Familiarity with military communication standards and secure over-the-air transmission.
• Scripting / embedded experience (Python, C++) for test automation and instrumentation.