Wireless Communications Engineer | LoRa, LTE & Satellite
Ranchflow AI | IdeaHUB | In person | Full-time contract
Pay: $40–$45/hour
About Ranchflow AI
Ranchflow AI develops virtual fencing collars and livestock management technology. We’re looking for a Wireless Communications Engineer to develop reliable, energy-efficient connectivity between devices, farm gateways, and cloud services using LoRa, LTE, and satellite communications, including in rural areas with limited coverage.
What you’ll do
- Design and test LoRa, LoRaWAN, and device-to-device communication networks for livestock monitoring and virtual fencing.
- Develop and evaluate mesh networking, message relaying, and adaptive routing for networks of moving, battery-powered devices.
- Integrate LTE connectivity, including LTE-M or NB-IoT where appropriate, and satellite IoT modules into embedded hardware and firmware.
- Develop communication protocols for device status, location data, alerts, and virtual boundary updates.
- Design and test network discovery, connection management, and communication path selection as coverage and device availability change.
- Optimize communication across LoRa, LTE, and satellite links for reliability, range, power consumption, latency, capacity, and data costs.
- Implement message acknowledgements, retries, buffering, and recovery following connectivity interruptions.
- Develop link budgets and evaluate the effects of terrain, vegetation, animal movement, and collar placement.
- Plan and test gateway placement, antenna configurations, and network coverage across farms.
- Configure and troubleshoot radios, modems, gateways, and network infrastructure.
- Measure packet delivery, signal quality, power consumption, and network performance during bench and field testing.
- Work with hardware and firmware engineers on antenna integration, communication protocols, and device behaviour when connectivity is unavailable.
- Document network designs, configurations, test results, and deployment procedures.
What you’ll bring
- A degree in electrical, telecommunications, or computer engineering, or equivalent relevant experience.
- Practical experience with LoRa or comparable low-power wireless networks, including an understanding of LoRaWAN and custom device-to-device protocols.
- Experience integrating cellular connectivity into embedded devices, preferably LTE, LTE-M, or NB-IoT.
- A strong understanding of RF fundamentals, antennas, propagation, and link budgets.
- An understanding of mesh networking, routing, and communication challenges in networks with moving devices and intermittent connections.
- Practical embedded C/C++ experience and familiarity with radio or modem interfaces such as UART and SPI.
- Familiarity with IP networking and connected-device architectures.
- Experience diagnosing wireless connectivity issues using measurements, device logs, and field testing.
- Ability to turn field requirements into practical, power-efficient communication systems.
Nice to have
- Experience integrating satellite IoT modules, modems, or communication services.
- Experience developing multi-radio systems and communication failover.
- Experience with rural or remote network deployments.
- Familiarity with Python or tools for automated network testing.
- Experience with RF test equipment and antenna measurements.
- Familiarity with secure device provisioning, encrypted communications, and remote firmware updates.
- Familiarity with spectrum requirements and wireless product certification.
Work location
This is a full-time, in-person contract position based at IdeaHUB.
To apply
Apply through LinkedIn with your résumé.