Dallas-Fort Worth doesn't get talked about as much as San Diego or the DC corridor when it comes to RF engineering, but the market has grown substantially over the last decade, driven by defense manufacturing, telecom infrastructure, and a steady stream of companies relocating out of higher-cost states. No state income tax and a genuinely lower cost of living than the coastal defense hubs make it worth a serious look if you haven't considered it.

The main employers

Lockheed Martin in Fort Worth is the anchor of the region's defense presence, primarily through F-35 and F-16 production. The RF and EW work tied to these programs is substantial — radar systems, EW self-protection suites, and the communications and navigation systems that go into modern fighter aircraft. This is production-line-adjacent engineering as much as it is pure design work, meaning a lot of the roles involve supporting manufacturing, test, and integration rather than greenfield RF design. If you want hands-on exposure to how RF hardware actually gets built and integrated into a fielded weapons system at scale, this is a strong option.

Raytheon (RTX) has a meaningful presence in the area, primarily supporting missile systems and associated RF guidance and seeker technology. This work tends to be more classified and more specialized than general RF engineering, and clearance requirements are typically higher.

L3Harris has multiple sites across the metroplex doing communications systems, EW, and avionics work. Like most L3Harris locations, the work spans a wide range of RF disciplines depending on which specific site and program you land on.

Texas Instruments, headquartered in Dallas, is the major commercial RF semiconductor presence in the region. RFIC design, analog/RF mixed-signal work, and general semiconductor engineering roles here don't require a clearance and represent the clearest path into commercial RF work if you don't want defense-sector security requirements. TI's pace and culture are notably different from the defense contractors — more traditional corporate engineering culture, less program-driven urgency.

Collins Aerospace (part of RTX) has an Irving-area presence doing avionics and communications systems work, overlapping meaningfully with the broader RTX/Raytheon ecosystem in the region.

Beyond the major names, there's a growing base of smaller defense electronics companies and telecom infrastructure firms in the area, partly driven by companies relocating corporate operations to Texas for tax and regulatory reasons over the past several years. This has created more mid-size company options than existed a decade ago.

What clearance looks like here

The defense-heavy employers (Lockheed, Raytheon, most of L3Harris) require at least Secret clearance for the majority of meaningful RF roles, with Top Secret required for the more sensitive missile guidance and EW work at Raytheon specifically. Texas Instruments and most commercial telecom work don't require clearance at all, which makes DFW one of the better markets for RF engineers who want to keep both defense and commercial doors open depending on how their career develops.

Cleared engineers in this market, particularly those with fighter aircraft RF systems or missile guidance experience, are in real demand given the concentration of programs tied to Lockheed and Raytheon specifically.

Salary ranges

Entry-level (0–3 years, Secret or no clearance): $85,000–$108,000

Mid-level (4–8 years, Secret): $108,000–$145,000

Senior (8+ years, TS or TS/SCI): $145,000–$180,000

Staff/Principal with program-specific missile or fighter RF experience: $180,000–$215,000+

These numbers run somewhat below what you'd see in San Diego or the DC metro for equivalent experience, but the cost-of-living difference more than makes up for it in most cases — a DFW salary at these levels goes considerably further than the same number would in Southern California.

Cost of living

This is where DFW genuinely outperforms the coastal RF markets. A comparable one-bedroom apartment near the major employer clusters (Fort Worth near Lockheed, or North Dallas near TI) runs $1,300–$1,700 per month in 2026, roughly half of what you'd pay in San Diego or the DC suburbs for similar space. Median home prices in the suburbs feeding these employers — places like Grapevine, Southlake, or Arlington — remain well under half of comparable San Diego or Bay Area pricing, even after several years of Texas relocation-driven appreciation.

Combined with no state income tax, an RF engineer at any experience level in DFW is likely to have meaningfully more disposable income than an equivalent engineer on a coastal salary, even before accounting for the lower absolute salary numbers.

The commute and geography

DFW is sprawling, and where you live relative to your employer matters more here than in most metro areas because there's no dense urban core forcing everyone into a small radius. Lockheed employees generally cluster in west Fort Worth, Benbrook, or the western suburbs to avoid crossing the entire metroplex daily. TI and the North Dallas commercial cluster pulls people toward Plano, Richardson, and Frisco. Trying to live centrally and commute to either extreme is a longer drive than the map suggests, given DFW's traffic patterns during peak hours.

The state of the market right now

Fighter aircraft production at Lockheed has remained a steady, long-cycle driver of hiring, less subject to the boom-bust cycles you see with shorter defense programs elsewhere. Raytheon's missile programs have been active. TI's hiring is more cyclical and tied to the broader semiconductor demand cycle, similar to other commercial chip companies.

The region overall has benefited from a wave of corporate relocations to Texas, which has grown the base of mid-size companies and made the job market somewhat less concentrated in a handful of giant employers than it was a decade ago. That diversification is a genuine positive for RF engineers who want more than two or three companies to choose between.

Browse RF engineering jobs in Texas currently listed on this site, or see all RF engineering jobs across the industry.