Accomplished RF/PCB Engineer with Innovation Drive
Resume:
Phillip Koffman
I am a ** year old engineer who loves his job. I was inspired by famous engineers, mathematicians and physicists since I was in middle school and decided I wanted to be one. I haven't looked back since. I currently work at General Dynamics Mission Systems and it’s a good place to work but I feel like my current salary doesn’t reflect the contributions I bring nor does it reflect the current state of inflation. A secondary reason I am leaving is because I feel like my ability to innovate and improve is being stifled by bureaucracy and in turn, a general culture of being adverse to delivering the best product possible as opposed to the basic requirements. Since engineering is my passion and not simply work, this is hard for me to deal with. I have experience designing PCB products throughout their entire lifecycles, from basic block diagrams to schematic/layout work to testing/optimization. As you will see I have designed and programmed RF, digital and power circuits/systems but my main passion and the bulk of my skillset is in RF. I like to think of PCBs as virtual antennas and EM radiators. Everything from inductors/caps/resistors to even empty spaces of substrate can act like antennas and couple with undesired frequencies/energy into the circuit. It is my job as an EE to balance the system through various circuit topologies and layout geometry when doing schematic/design work by providing a low impedance path to ground for unwanted frequencies/energy amongst other things like providing noise mitigated power to the critical components. I am very easy going and open. I like to joke a lot(work appropriate) and I am always in a good mood at work even if I am having a stressful time in my personal life. I don’t believe in bringing negativity to the workplace. I also believe in honesty, even if it’s to my own detriment.. I act the same way I would expect my employees to if I owned my own business based on principle. Whether I am talking to the CEO or a temporary intern I am always respectful, helpful and I try to even make sure my tone of voice is pleasant and formal. I don’t consider myself smart by any means. I am simply just extremely interested in STEM. Whether STEM or any other pursuit, I believe the key to success is the neurochemical fact that your brain performs most efficiently if you have the proper amount of dopamine and serotonin, which comes from interest and excitement. I also want to mention that unlike some engineers I met, I am not adverse to using AI to expedite my work and from my technical knowledge, I can discern what information it provides me is factual or not. I don’t think of it as something that will take my job one day but on the contrary, will allow me to be more of a one man team.. Clearance level: Secret(interim right now but it should be fully done soon as i applied 8 months ago)
Thank you for your time and consideration
EXPERIENCE
General Dynamics, Senior Electrical Engineer
III 01/25-present
- Schematic design and PCB layout: Used Mentor Graphics to design RF Front ends, main SDR boards(xilinx: Zynq Ultrascale+), communication hubs, Ethernet/USB/EKMS(DS101)adapter boards and backup battery/power system boards for hypersonic missiles and field radio equipment
-firmware/software: PMICs, PIC, SoC(support) and STM32
-Analysis/design/troubleshooting/simulation/optimization: RF, Power and digital work using ADS, LTSPICE, Hyperlinx products and HFSS
- Provided general technical and design input on various projects and performed soldering work on parts as small as 0201
- Some patch antenna design and wrote up/performed test plans for the entire system
- Used Jira(agile certified and was scrum master for a few months)
- Reason for leaving: low pay and limited opportunities to innovate new ideas and technologies
9/23-12/24: Unable to work due to bone infection contracted from a tooth extraction
Augustus Aerospace, RF Hardware Design
Engineer 05/23-07/23
- Developed an RF hardware front end board that adhered to IPC and NASA standards for a satellite SDR system which incorporated signal power regulation and an anti-aliasing stripline(passed RF through a via) filter bank passing signals from 0-6 GHz, used Altium. Very small form factor..
- reason for leaving: 3 month contract ended, product delivered Holzworth/Wireless Telecom Group, RF
Hardware Test and Production Engineer
09/22-03/23
- Troubleshoot/altered boards and the production line for Holzworth's product line which includes Phase Noise Analyzers, RF signal generators(10Mhz-48GHz), rf attenuators/amps and up/down-converter modules
- Created and altered test procedures to detect/collect noise and power level data on the up/down-converter, RF Synthesizer, RF amp and FPGA phase noise processing PCB modules
- Minor circuit and layout design changes in Altium
- Firmware and software modifications in C and Matlab
- Created over 30 detailed block diagrams of existing PCBs to aid technicians
- Incorporated automatic Loop Control for RF power via diode detector feedback loops, PIC utilization, phase locked loops and updated the software dealing with cross correlation techniques and FFT processing of baseband data
- Reason for leaving: I wanted to get back into doing more design work Taphere Technology, RF Hardware Design
Engineer
10/2021 - 09/2022
- Designed various RF front end boards for the main SDR board which were heterodyne systems with control signals. Used both component and microstrip filters, 490-560 mhz
- Redesigned the power system for the main SDR board after a chip shortage, made sure the new chips could provide adequate power to the various components and redid the main board layout
- Helped program the Xilinx Atrix 7 RFSoC FPGA to coordinate full duplex communication between the ADC and USB hub chips on our SDR board in Verilog using Vivado
- Reason for leaving: laid off due to lack of sales CenturyLink, Associate Engineer 10/19 - 5/20
-Allocated bandwidth and did other networking tasks for new commercial location setup for our clients using proprietary software.
- Sorted data in Excel spreadsheets and mySQL
-Reason for leaving: laid off due to covid
Burlywood, Laboratory Technician 11/17 - 5/19
- Assisted in the development of SSDs with PCIE compatibility, troubleshot and revised SSD failures at the circuit and firmware level, assembled and ran laboratory computer stations used for testing the SSDs, soldered reworks/altercations to the SSDs and re-configured testing stations, made alterations to the SSD circuit schematic and PCB layout files and typed up official manuals for using the test fixtures. Laid off..
EPEC Engineering, Associate Engineer 3/17 -10/17
- Developed, assembled and reworked battery packs that were primarily for medical and military use.
- Designed and built test fixtures for the battery pack regulator PCBs, I used circuit schematic software called Eagle to design and print out PCBs that were components in the boxes .
- Flew out to MA or FL one week out of every month to teach the techs how to use the new test fixtures along with working on problems in the production line.
- Wrote up BOMs for the packs and procedures for the test fixtures.
- Performed tests on the battery pack prototypes to obtain parameters for the firmware that was used in the regulator circuit’s TI chips.
- Reason for leaving: fired for missing an email
Hyundai Rotmen, Train Technician 7/15 - 1/17
- Worked on almost every component on the RTDs 66 car fleet of trains running north and east to the airport.
- Troubleshot and repaired electrical and mechanical components such as CCTV, PTC, network switch, radio, HVAC, power distribution, propulsion, air compression, pneumatic brake system, master controls and the axles..
- Repaired deficient parts when possible and replaced them when they were unfixable.
- Performed tests and gathered data on the trains while they were operating.
- Performed maintenance and updated train components with reworks.
- Reason for leaving: 2.5 year long contract ended 6947 E Girard ave
Denver CO, 80224
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SKILLS
Hardware Design/Tools: RF design regarding signal generation and signal propagation, FPGA layout/programing, feedback control systems, Phase locked systems, Multimeter, Oscilloscope, Spectrum analyzer, Network analyzer/VNA, Power analyzer, PCIE, USB/ETH and A/D controllers, soldering, battery packs, PCB layout for power, phase noise analyzer, RF/IF signal generation, DDR, STM32, Jira, I2C/SPI/QSPI/RS232/CAN/Eth PHY, USB, PLLs, SERDES, ADC/DAC, DC-DC convertors, and other circuit topologies Software/websites: HFSS/Ansys suite, Hyperlinx, LTSPICE, CST, Altium, Orcad/allegro, Vivado, Vitis, Eagle, PSpice, ADS, VMware NSX, Digikey, Github, Linux/GNU, Visio, mySQL, Spyder Coding: Verilog, Python, C/C++, Matlab, SQL, FFT and phase noise analysis using cross correlation Strengths: Technical/scientific knowledge and positive attitude Weaknesses: organization and social skills(I am steadily improving) REFERENCES
Scott Kelmer, Adv. Electrical Engineer 2 and friend at General Dynamics: *****.******@**-**.***, 720-***-****
Jeff Lillibridge, Software engineer/friend at General dynamics: *******.***********@**-**.***, 661-***-****
Aaron Diaz, former boss at Holzworth:*****@*******.***, 303-***-**** Matt Todd, Principal Engineer and former boss at Taphere Radio: *****@*******.***, 571-***-****
Aakash Sahai, Electrical Engineering professor at CU Denver: ******.*****@********.***
EDUCATION
CU Denver, Pursuing Masters in EE
8/2025 - present
Took an antenna class last semester(got and A) and taking a digital communication course this semester. Taking one class a semester so it doesn't interfere with work. Teacher gave me permission to not have to show up to every class to help accommodate my career. CU Denver, Bachelors in EE
08/16 - 05/21
*Senior level classes included RF circuits, quantum computing, digital signal processing and high level mathematics subjects. Lifelong self learner, always collecting high level textbooks on EE and Math.
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