Principal Avionics Engineer - Neutron

Rocket Lab Corporation; Auckland; On-site; NZD 180,000 - 240,000; Full time

Job summary

Rocket Lab in Auckland, NZ is seeking a Principal Avionics Engineer to own the avionics hardware and drive design across bench testing, reviews, and in-house production. You will set strategy for circuit design, PCB layouts, and test coverage with hands-on leadership.

You will mentor engineers, guide R&D practices, and align engineering changes with manufacturing goals, while shaping a scalable avionics development path for Neutron and future missions at Rocket Lab Auckland.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in engineering or equivalent professional experience.
• 8+ years of relevant industry experience in avionics or similar domains.
• Proficiency in analogue, high-speed digital, and power electronics design.

Responsibilities

• Act as technical lead for avionics hardware across bench, reviews and integration.
• Manage full lifecycle from R&D prototyping to qualification and production.
• Review and approve engineering changes, oversee board and flex design, analyses, and validation.
• Mentor engineers and contribute to performance reviews and resourcing plans.

Skills

Analogue design

High speed digital

Power electronics

Electronic circuit design

Mentoring / technical guidance

Education

Bachelor's degree in engineering

Tools

Altium/EDA tools

Circuit simulation (SPICE)

Job description

Rocket Lab is the end-to-end space company building rockets, spacecraft, and critical subsystems that keep the world connected, protected, expand humanity’s reach to the Moon, Mars, and beyond. We move fast, build real hardware for meaningful missions, and make the impossible routine. Come shape the future with us.

We’re building Neutron, a medium lift, reusable launch vehicle designed for constellation deployment, interplanetary missions, and human spaceflight. It's the most ambitious programme in our history, and the avionics that fly it is being designed, built, and tested in house and we are looking for a Principal Engineer to join the team doing it.

ABOUT THE ROLE

The Neutron Avionics team owns every avionics system on the vehicle. Flight computers, power distribution, sensing, comms, and the flexible harness assemblies that tie it all together. Almost all of it is developed and produced internally, which means the people who design it also see it fly.

As Principal Avionics Engineer, you are the technical authority for avionics hardware, circuit design, PCB layout, and test strategy and coverage. This is a hands on technical leadership role with no direct reports, your influence comes from your engineering judgement, your ability to solve problems nobody has solved before, and the engineers you make better along the way.

YOU’LL GET TO:

Own & Ship

• Act as technical lead and subject matter expert for avionics hardware hands on, on the bench, and in the reviews
• Take avionics components and architectures through the full lifecycle requirements R&D prototyping, qualification, and production
• Review and approve engineering change, oversee board and flex assembly design, design analyses, and design validation

Solve & Fix

• Own technical risk to avionics and to the vehicle, assessing probability and consequence, and making the trade calls
• Lead root cause analysis on anomalies and failures, and make sure the fix sticks

Lead & Scale

• Lead small teams through significant engineering challenges
• Assess emerging technologies and shape the avionics technology pipeline and development strategy
• Improve how we engineer: R&D practice, design for manufacture, engineering change, and the processes that let us scale

Grow & Deliver

• Mentor and coach engineers at every level, contribute to performance reviews, and help shape resourcing plans, hiring strategy, and onboarding

YOU'LL BRING THESE QUALIFICATIONS:

Core requirements:

• Bachelor's degree in a relevant engineering discipline, or equivalent professional experience
• 8+ years of relevant industry experience
• High proficiency in at least two of: analogue design, high speed digital, power electronics
• Strong command of electronics design tools, including circuit simulation and analysis
• A genuine aptitude for technical guidance and mentoring, at any level
• Excellent written and verbal communication, and demonstrated organisation and planning skills

BONUS POINTS FOR:

• Hardware taken from concept all the way through to production
• Understanding of space environmental testing vibration, shock, thermal, TVAC
• Familiarity with formal systems engineering: requirements management, compliance matrices
• Experience building and pitching business cases for capital investment
• Experience setting technical strategy and communicating it to individual contributors
• A track record of driving cross functional initiatives through influence rather than authority

EXPECTATIONS

• Ownership mentality with the ability to drive tasks and projects to completion independently
• Thrive in ambiguous, fast changing environments where requirements evolve rapidly
• Balance speed with quality, move quickly while maintaining appropriate rigour
• No task is beneath you, roll up your sleeves and do what's needed for mission success
• Bias for action, prioritise getting hands on, building and testing hardware to get results early

WHAT NEXT

Design it, build it, watch it launch, then watch it come back.

WHAT TO EXPECT

We’re on a mission to unlock the potential of space to improve life on Earth, but that’s not an easy task. It takes hard work, determination, relentless innovation, teamwork, grit, and an unwavering commitment to achieving what others often deem impossible. Our people out-think, out-work, and out-pace. We pride ourselves on having each other’s backs, checking our egos at the door, and rolling up our sleeves on all tasks big and small. We thrive under pressure, work to tight deadlines, and our focus is always on how we can deliver, rather than dwelling on the challenges that stand in the way.

FOR CANDIDATES SEEKING TO WORK IN US OFFICES ONLY:

To conform to U.S. Government space technology export regulations, including the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR), Rocket Lab Employees must be a U.S. citizen, lawful U.S. permanent resident (i.e., current Green Card holder), or lawfully admitted into the U.S. as a refugee or granted asylum, or be eligible to obtain the required authorizations from the U.S. Department of State and/or the U.S. Department of Commerce, as applicable. Learn more about ITAR here .

Rocket Lab provides equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants for employment and prohibits discrimination and harassment of any type without regard to race, color, religion, age, sex, national origin, disability status, genetics, protected veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state, or local laws. This policy applies to all terms and conditions of employment at Rocket Lab, including recruiting, hiring, placement, promotion, termination, layoff, recall, transfer, leaves of absence, compensation, and training.

Applicants requiring a reasonable accommodation for the application/interview process for a job in the United States should contact Giulia Johnson at [e-mail]. This dedicated resource is intended solely to assist job seekers with disabilities whose disability prevents them from being able to apply/interview. Only messages left for this purpose will be considered. A response to your request may take up to two business days.

FOR CANDIDATES SEEKING TO WORK IN NEW ZEALAND OFFICES ONLY:

For security reasons, background checks will be undertaken prior to any employment offers being made to an applicant. These checks will include nationality checks as it is a requirement of this position that you be eligible to access equipment and data regulated by the United States' International Traffic in Arms Regulations.

Under these Regulations, you may be ineligible for this role if you do not hold citizenship of Australia, Japan, New Zealand, Switzerland, the European Union, or a country that is part of NATO, or if you hold ineligible dual citizenship or nationality. For more information on these Regulations, click here ITAR Regulations.