Dr K Rajalakshmi Menon joined DRDO as Scientist B at Aerospace Surveillance Warning and Control (ASWAC), erstwhile Centre for Airborne Systems (CABS) in 1988 after her MSc in Computer Science from University of Poona. She further obtained her Masters in Engineering in the area of Clutter Characterisation from Airborne Platformand a PhD in the area of Target Recognition from Department of Aerospace Engineering, Indian Institute of Science.

She has made significant contributions in design and development of Airborne Surveillance Systems. Her area of expertise includes System Engineering of Complex Systems, Command, Control, Communications,Computers, Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (C4ISR), Image Intelligence, Guidance and Control, Battle Management, System Design and System Analysis of Airborne Radars and EW sensors.