---
title: 'Senior RF Engineer at Fortell'
canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/senior-rf-engineer-fortell-new-york-mfeq0ypwp30w'
type: 'job'
last_seen: '2026-09-08'
---

# Senior RF Engineer at Fortell

- **Company:** Fortell
- **Location:** New York, NY
- **Employment:** full-time
- **Work type:** hybrid
- **Posted:** 2026-06-02
- **Last confirmed live:** 2026-09-08
- **Apply:** https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/fortell/7b7cb698-3170-4942-a52e-12d2505bdae0

## Job description

Fortell is designing better hearing aids for life as it's meant to be heard. Traditional hearing aids make everything louder but they don't do enough to help the brain separate conversation from noise. Fortell uses a custom AI chip to separate speech from noise in real time, amplifying the important speech and attenuating the noise.

We are backed by Thrive Capital, Valor Equity Partners, Founders Fund, Optum Ventures, Lux Capital, Vast Ventures, Good Friends, Positive Sum, Stonecroft, and Atreides Management. Our debut product is available now at Fortell Audiology on Park Avenue and 61st Street.

## THE ROLE

We are looking for a Senior RF Engineer to join our hardware team. Working closely with our Head of RF, you will drive RF development, bring-up, and support from early prototyping through production validation.

You've shipped products where RF was genuinely hard, constrained form factors, limited power budgets, tightly packaged electronics, and you came out the other side with something that actually works. You're as comfortable at the bench with a spectrum analyzer as you are in a schematic review, and you bring deep intuition for what it takes to make RF work in these small, power-limited devices. You also move fast. We intend to iterate faster than any other hardware startup, and we need RF engineers who are creative problem-solvers committed to making sure RF is never the long pole in the schedule.

This role is on-site at Fortell’s office in NYC. This position requires travel up to 20% of the time, including domestic and/or international travel as needed.

## WHAT YOU'LL DO

- Drive RF development, bring-up, testing, and troubleshooting for Fortell's hearing aid products.
- Tightly collaborate with the Head of RF in Denmark to drive RF strategy, set development timelines, and make architectural decisions that keep the product moving forward.
- Define and optimize the RF front-end architecture, including antenna design, matching networks and link budget optimization for Bluetooth Classic, Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE), and NFMI.
- Drive miniaturization and integration — finding ways to make the RF subsystem smaller, more tightly integrated, and more manufacturable without giving up performance.
- Read, review, and red-line schematics; collaborate with the electrical engineering team on Altium layout to ensure RF-critical placement, routing, and stackup decisions are correct.
- Build and run RF test and validation efforts — define test plans, operate bench equipment, collect chamber data, and close the loop between simulation and measured performance.
- Prototype and experiment hands-on: solder, rework, probe, and iterate quickly to resolve issues and prove out ideas.
- Support production RF validation and troubleshooting as products move into manufacturing.

## WHAT WE'RE LOOKING FOR

- Deep expertise in Bluetooth Classic and BLE RF implementation.
- Background in hearing aid, earbud, or ear-worn product development, with an understanding of the unique RF and form-factor constraints these products impose.
- Strong RF simulation skills (ideally CST Studio) — you use these simulation tools to make informed design decisions before committing to hardware.
- Expert-level electrical engineering skills: schematic capture, circuit analysis, component selection, and close collaboration with the electrical engineering team on PCB layout to minimize desense (Altium preferred).
- Hands-on prototyping and lab skills — comfortable with spectrum analyzers, network analyzers, oscilloscopes, and the full RF bench toolkit.
- Experience taking complex RF designs through the full product lifecycle: from architecture through validation and into production.
- High urgency and bias toward action — you find ways to get answers fast, whether that means a quick bench experiment, a rough simulation, or a creative workaround, rather than waiting for perfect conditions.

## NICE TO HAVE

- Experience with regulatory testing and certification (FCC, CE, IC) for wireless devices.
- Familiarity with NFMI (Near-Field Magnetic Induction) systems — ideally in hearing aids, earbuds, or similar ear-worn devices.

#LI-Hybrid

## About Fortell

## Company Overview
- **One-liner**: Fortell builds AI-powered hearing aids that use custom silicon and advanced signal processing to clarify speech in noisy environments, helping people understand more of what they hear.
- **Entity Type**: Private (backed by prominent venture capital firms)
- **Headquarters**: New York, New York, United States
- **Founded**: 2021
- **Founders**: Matthew de Jonge (CEO), Andrew Casper (CTO), Igor (last name not publicly available), Cole (last name not publicly available)

## Core Business
- **Primary industry**: Medical device manufacturing (hearing aids), artificial intelligence, healthtech
- **Target customers**: B2C – individuals with hearing loss, especially those who struggle with speech comprehension in noise; also works with audiologists and clinics
- **Mission statement**: "To restore effortless connection through better hearing."

## Products & Services
- **Fortell AI Hearing Aids**: A hardware + software product featuring custom AI chips that separate speech from background noise in real time. The device is fitted and programmed through Fortell’s own audiology clinics (first clinic at 530 Park Ave, New York, NY). The product is marketed as a medical device and is available only after a personalized hearing evaluation and fitting by an audiologist.

## Market Standing
- **Valuation**: Not publicly disclosed
- **Key Metric**: Total funding amount not disclosed; backed by Thrive Capital, Founders Fund, Valor Equity Partners, Optum Ventures, Lux Capital, Vast Ventures, Good Friends, Positive Sum, Stonecroft, and Atreides Management.
- **Notable Investors/Partners**: Thrive Capital, Founders Fund, Valor Equity Partners (lead investors); advisors include Dr. Barbara Weinstein (Professor of Audiology, NYU), Dr. Kevin Franck (former Chair, Hearing Loss Association of America), Dr. Matt Fitzgerald (Stanford), Dr. Jan Blustein (NYU School of Medicine).
- **Growth Signals**: 
  - 52 employees (LinkedIn) with +1.6% monthly headcount growth
  - 15 active job postings (as of mid-2025), with a 200% monthly increase and 1400% quarterly increase in postings
  - First clinic in New York City; planning to expand to multiple major U.S. cities (e.g., Palm Beach Gardens, FL; Bay Area; Boston; Greenwich, CT)
  - Clinical trials show 50x more words understood vs. leading AI hearing aid in challenging noise; 95% of participants preferred Fortell over 5 top-spec competitors

## Competitive Advantages
- **Custom AI silicon**: Proprietary chips designed specifically for real-time speech separation, not just amplification.
- **Clinical validation**: Randomized controlled trials overseen by external academics demonstrating significant improvement in speech comprehension.
- **Integrated clinic model**: Direct-to-consumer fitting and support through owned audiology clinics, ensuring proper tuning and customer satisfaction.
- **Strong investor syndicate**: Backing from top-tier VCs (Thrive, Founders Fund, Valor) provides credibility and resources.

## Strategic Focus
- **Clinic expansion**: Opening new clinics across the U.S. to increase accessibility.
- **Talent acquisition**: Aggressively hiring across engineering (firmware, DSP, AI, hardware), audiology, quality, supply chain, and operations.
- **Product refinement**: Continuous improvement of AI algorithms and hardware based on real-world feedback and clinical data.

## Why Work Here
- **Culture**: Described as fast-moving, intentional, and mission-driven. Emphasis on cutting-edge science, human-centered design, and improving lives at scale.
- **Work environment**: Hybrid roles available (e.g., Firmware Engineer listed as hybrid on Built In). Office located in New York City with free lunch.
- **Compensation & benefits**: Competitive salary and stock options; top-notch healthcare for employee and family; free lunch; generous paid time off; 401(k) plan; parental leave.
- **Engineering culture**: Opportunity to work on custom silicon, AI/ML, DSP, and hardware in a startup environment with strong scientific backing. Team includes pioneers from Google, Butterfly Network, Mount Sinai, and other top organizations.

## Sources
1. [Fortell.com – Homepage](https://www.fortell.com/)
2. [Fortell.com – About Us](https://www.fortell.com/about-us)
3. [Fortell.com – Careers](https://www.fortell.com/careers)
4. [LinkedIn – Fortell Research Inc](https://www.linkedin.com/company/fortell-research)
5. [Built In – Fortell Research Inc Jobs](https://builtin.com/company/fortell-research-inc/jobs)

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