
Signal Processing Engineer (RF Processing & Analytics) at Harmattan AI (Paris, France)
Harmattan AI· Paris, France·
Role details
Harmattan AI at a glance
France's first defense-tech unicorn, building attritable AI-piloted strike, interception, and ISR drones for allied militaries.
Harmattan AI is a vertically integrated defense prime building autonomous drone systems for allied militaries. It designs the full stack, from airframes and payloads to embedded compute and the autonomy algorithms that let drones sense, decide, and act at the edge without GPS or a network link, coordinated across a swarm by its mission-orchestration layer.
$242M raised · latest: Series B · $200M · January 2026 · backed by Dassault Aviation, FirstMark Capital, Atlantic, Motier Ventures
Job description
ABOUT US
Harmattan AI is a next-generation defense prime building autonomous and scalable defense systems. Following the close of a $200M Series B, valuing the company at $1.4 billion, we are expanding our teams and capabilities to deliver mission-critical systems to allied forces.
Our work is guided by clear values: building technologies with real-world impact, pursuing excellence in everything we do, setting ambitious goals, and taking on the hardest technical challenges. We operate in a demanding environment where rigor, ownership, and execution are expected.
About the Role
As Signal Processing Engineer within RF Processing & Analytics, you own the algorithms that turn raw electromagnetic intercepts into an actionable picture of the RF environment — detecting, characterizing, and identifying the emitters around our platforms in contested environments. You work across the signals captured by our Radar, Radio, and Electronic Warfare modules, building the classification and analytics layer that turns isolated detections into a real-time electronic order of battle for operators and downstream autonomy.
Responsibilities
- Signal Detection & Characterization: Build algorithms to detect, deinterleave, and extract parameters (PRI, pulse width, frequency, modulation) from intercepted RF emissions.
- Emitter Classification & Identification: Develop classification pipelines — combining feature-based methods and machine learning — to identify emitter types and match them against threat libraries.
- Electronic Order of Battle: Design the analytics that turn individual detections into a coherent, real-time picture of emitters, tracks, and threat posture.
- AI-Assisted Analytics: Apply machine learning to modulation recognition, anomaly detection, and emitter fingerprinting where it improves classification confidence in dense, contested spectrum.
- Cross-Module Data Fusion: Work with signals captured by Radar, Radio, and Electronic Warfare to build a unified processing pipeline rather than siloed, single-sensor analysis.
- Real-Time Pipeline Engineering: Take algorithms from offline prototyping (MATLAB/Python) to real-time or near-real-time implementation, alongside software and embedded/FPGA engineers.
- Field Validation: Validate detection and classification performance against simulated and real-world RF datasets, in lab and field-test conditions.
Candidate Requirements
- Master's or PhD in Electrical Engineering, Signal Processing, Applied Mathematics, or a related field.
- 3-6 years of experience in RF/radar signal processing, ideally with exposure to ELINT, ESM, or SIGINT applications.
- Strong fundamentals in DSP: spectral analysis, filtering, multi-rate processing, statistical/adaptive signal processing.
- Proficiency in Python and/or MATLAB for algorithm prototyping; working knowledge of C/C++ for production-oriented implementation.
- Comfortable applying machine learning to signal classification problems.
- Clear communicator, able to work across RF hardware, software, and data science disciplines.
- Fluency in English required; French is a plus.
We look forward to hearing how you can help shape the future of autonomous defense systems at Harmattan AI.
Why work at Harmattan AI
- Culture: “Elite builders” who “thrive on complexity, move with urgency, and own their work end to end.” Emphasis on purpose, technical excellence, and real‑world impact. harmattan.ai
- Values: Tackle the hardest problems, build what matters, move at the speed of relevance, and aim to redefine frontiers. harmattan.ai
- Work policy: Hybrid model with a mix of remote and on‑site; many roles are in‑office at locations in Paris, Lausanne, London, Arlington (TX), Wissous, Poland, UAE, and Morocco. builtin.com
- Engineering culture: Hands‑on development of mission‑critical autonomous systems; strong R&D focus across AI, computer vision, RF hardware, propulsion, and mission planning.
- Perks: Not explicitly listed, but the company highlights the opportunity to protect front‑line personnel and shape the future of autonomous defence.