5G Planning Engineer

The client is looking for a 5G Planning Engineer to work a 3 month rolling contract based in South Africa (Johannesburg).

Job Overview:

• The client is looking for a highly experienced Senior RF Planning Engineer with strong hands-on expertise in 5G NR and Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) rollout.
• The ideal candidate has deep technical knowledge, proven project delivery experience and the ability to lead complex planning activities with minimal guidance.
• This role requires someone who can design, optimize and manage large scale 5G FWA networks and support coverage, capacity and performance improvements across multiple regions.

Key Responsibilities:

• Lead end to end RF planning for 5G FWA, including link budgets, coverage design, capacity modelling and propagation analysis.
• Develop and maintain 5G NR planning guidelines, parameter strategies and network design documentation.
• Perform nominal planning using Atoll or Planet, including grid design, spectrum utilisation and site selection.
• Analyse customer capacity demand, household density, clutter types and outdoor CPE behavior to guide FWA coverage strategies.
• Conduct detailed propagation modelling for CPE indoor vs outdoor scenarios.
• Design and validate CPE signal thresholds, DL/UL throughput expectations and target KPIs for FWA.
• Support rollout teams on cluster design, site prioritization and deployment sequencing for 5G FWA expansion.
• Lead 5G NR interference analysis, PCI/RSI planning and Massive MIMO beam strategy alignment.

Required Experience & Skills:

• 5 to 7+ years of RF planning and optimization experience in mobile networks.
• Strong hands-on expertise in 5G NR planning, including coverage, capacity and interference management.
• Proven experience leading 5G FWA planning projects at large scale.
• Deep understanding of 5G technologies: Massive MIMO, beamforming, TDD planning, NR parameters, multi-band design.
• Expert level knowledge of RF propagation models used for FWA scenarios.
• Strong experience with planning tools such as Asset,Atoll, Planet or equivalent.
• Strong analytical skills with ability to interpret DT data, CPE performance data and OSS KPIs.
• Solid understanding of LTE anchor layer planning (L800/L1800/L2100/L2600) and its interaction with NR.
• Experience with VoNR planning is an advantage.
• Vendor experience with Huawei, ZTE, Nokia or Ericsson is a plus.

Please note: The client is looking for consultants based in South Africa.