Lead, Space Sensing & Domain Awareness Programs (TS/SCI)

Rocket Lab Corporation; Long Beach (CA); On-site; USD 125,000 - 188,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

EV charging

Onsite fitness centers

Merch discounts

Employee discounts

Job summary

Rocket Lab Corporation in Long Beach, CA is looking for a Senior Program Manager I for Space Sensing & Domain Awareness (TS/SCI). You will own the technical roadmap and lead end-to-end programs from prototype through production, interfacing with engineers and government customers in national security space.

You will manage cross-functional teams across optics, electronics, software and data streams, drive schedules and risk, and coordinate with suppliers to ensure flight-ready production.

Qualifications

• 5+ years of aerospace program management experience.
• Evidence you've moved real hardware and software from prototype toward scalable, flight-ready production.
• Understanding of EO/IR sensing, optical payloads, or focal plane arrays.
• Experience identifying technical, schedule, or supply-chain risk and neutralizing it before it impacts the mission.
• Active TS/SCI clearance.

Responsibilities

• Command the Lifecycle: Build and lead the team that takes EO/IR sensing payloads and optical systems from a “blank sheet” concept through qualification, scalable production, and flight, and own the technical roadmap that grows the team's core capabilities.
• Lead the Team of Teams: Run multiple active programs at once, make sound architectural calls with Chief Engineers, navigate the hardest trade-offs in pointing stability and jitter, sensitivity, and revisit, and personally dive into the most program-threatening problems alongside the team.
• Build the Bench: Grow a culture where strong people take smart, healthy risks and the best idea wins, no matter who it comes from, we back bold calls and treat an intelligent miss as the cost of moving fast, and coach and develop the next generation of program and team leaders.
• Forge the Supply Chain: Manage high-stakes subcontracts and suppliers as strategic partners essential to the mission, protecting schedule and margin.
• Unblock Excellence: Synchronize cross-functional teams across optics, electronics, software, and the data chain and clear roadblocks quickly so the team keeps moving at speed and quality stays high.
• Influence the Future: Serve as the primary point of contact for assigned U.S. Government tracking, warning, and surveillance customers, and partner with BD & Strategy on proposals and technical narratives that define the next generation of space domain awareness.

Skills

Aerospace PM

Program ownership

EO/IR sensing

Supply chain risk

TS/SCI clearance

Hardware integration

Flight production

Education

Bachelor’s degree in technical field

Job description

Rocket Lab Corporation in Long Beach, CA is looking for a Senior Program Manager I for Space Sensing & Domain Awareness (TS/SCI). You will own the technical roadmap and lead end-to-end programs from prototype through production, interfacing with engineers and government customers in national security space.

You will manage cross-functional teams across optics, electronics, software and data streams, drive schedules and risk, and coordinate with suppliers to ensure flight-ready production.