Head of Communications, Radar and Sensing

About the role

Onodrim is building Europe's largest defence and industrial platform. We acquire specialist manufacturers in critical defence and dual-use supply chains, then invest behind their growth with capital, technology and operating know-how.

Radio communications, radar, sensing and the RF hardware underneath them are one of the areas where Europe's capacity gap is widest and where we intend to build real depth. The Head of Communications, Radar and Sensing owns that business unit. You'll set the vision for what Onodrim should own and build in RF, decide which acquisitions, programmes and partnerships we pursue and which we pass on, and run the unit as it grows – from a handful of programmes today to a portfolio of companies, products and customers.

This is a role for someone who has spent a career in RF and has formed strong opinions from it. You'll need the technical depth to walk into a target company, understand what its engineers have actually built and what it would take to enhance it; the market understanding to know which capabilities European armed forces and primes will pay for over the next decade; and the commercial judgement to turn both into decisions with capital behind them.

What you'll do

• Set the vision. Define what Onodrim's RF business should look like in five years – which capabilities we should own, buy, or leave to others – and keep it current as the field and the threat adapts.
• Decide where to invest and where to pass. Lead technical and commercial assessment of acquisition targets, programmes, partnerships and internal R&D in radio, radar and RF hardware. Be able to defend your assessment and position.
• Own the unit's results. Run the RF business unit against revenue, programme wins, margin and acquisition outcomes. Build the budget and the plan, and hold the team to it.
• Lead technical diligence. Go deep on target companies' products, IP, test data, supply chains and engineering teams. Separate what works from what is promised, and price the gap.
• Drive portfolio-company growth. After an acquisition, set the product and technology direction for the RF businesses we own, decide what to consolidate across them, and unblock what slows them down.
• Shape our product roadmap. Decide what Onodrim builds in-house versus sources from the portfolio or from partners, and steer the internal R&D programmes that fall under RF.
• Own key relationships. Be our senior counterpart to semiconductor and module suppliers, research institutes, primes, system integrators and armed-forces customers in the RF domain.
• Build and lead the team. Hire and manage the Programme Managers for Radio Communications and Radar Systems and the engineers around them; set standards for how programmes are scoped, run and reviewed.
• Represent Onodrim externally. Speak for our RF strategy with customers, governments, investors and industry – in a way consistent with the discretion the sector demands.
• Raise the level. Make the whole company – deal team, operators, engineers – better at reasoning about RF.

Requirements

What you'll bring

• A degree in electrical engineering, physics or a closely related discipline; a doctorate or equivalent research depth in RF, microwave, communications or radar is a plus but not required.
• 10+ years in RF systems – radio communications, radar or RF/microwave hardware – with meaningful time spent in at least two of the three.
• At least 5 years in a role with business ownership: running a product line, business unit or engineering organisation with its own P&L, customers and roadmap.
• A track record of taking RF products from concept through qualification and into the hands of a defence or demanding industrial customer.
• Strong, articulate opinions about where the field is moving – software-defined radio, active electronically scanned arrays, spectrum and EW resilience, the role of commercial silicon – and the judgement to know which trends matter for a company like Onodrim.
• Experience making invest/pass decisions: technical diligence of companies or programmes, build-vs-buy-vs-partner calls, and the discipline to say no.
• Working knowledge of how European armed forces and primes buy – requirements, qualification, framework contracts, offsets, export control.
• Credibility with engineers: you can read a schematic, a link budget or a radar range equation and ask the question that matters.
• Experience hiring and leading senior technical people.
• Clear, direct communication in English, written and spoken, including with boards and investors.
• Willingness to travel regularly across Europe to portfolio companies, targets, partners and customers.
• Right to work in the UK, Switzerland or the EU, and eligibility for a national security clearance in at least one of our operating countries.

Nice to have

• We operate our business in English but fluency in one or more additional European languages is helpful
• An existing national security clearance.
• Experience in M&A on either side – diligence, integration or selling a business you built.
• Hands-on familiarity with modern commercial RF silicon and module ecosystems (cellular, Wi-Fi, mmWave) and the trade-offs of using them in defence products.
• Experience with tactical communications – 3GPP in contested environments, mesh networking, waveform design, anti-jam – or with counter-UAS and short-range sensing radar.
• A network across European defence primes, research institutes and procurement agencies.
• Experience in a scale-up, PE-backed platform or corporate venture unit where you built something from a small base.
• Publications, patents or standards-body contributions in the field.