Senior DevOps Engineer I

Rocket Lab Corporation; Long Beach (CA); On-site; USD 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Job summary

Rocket Lab in Long Beach, CA is seeking a Senior DevOps Engineer I to build and run the observability platform for mission‑critical systems. You will enhance telemetry, dashboards, and alerting to support space missions with scalable, secure operations.

The role emphasizes automation, AI-driven improvements, and collaboration with Space Systems teams to improve reliability and performance across AWS and GCP environments.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, or other technical discipline.
• 5+ years of experience in DevOps, site reliability engineering, platform engineering, or related infrastructure discipline.
• Hands-on experience operating and improving production observability and monitoring platforms.
• Demonstrated expertise in AI/ML technologies with hands-on experience building AI-driven automation systems.

Responsibilities

• Build, operate, and continuously improve the observability stack (Grafana, Grafana Mimir, kube-prometheus-stack, Grafana Alloy).
• Design scalable metrics collection, ingestion, retention, and query patterns for Kubernetes and cloud workloads.
• Develop and maintain Grafana dashboards for insights to engineering and leadership.
• Design, tune, and maintain alerting and notification workflows to reduce noise and enable incident response.
• Partner with engineering to define meaningful SLIs/SLOs and monitoring standards.
• Integrate AWS CloudWatch and CloudTrail telemetry into the observability platform.
• Manage observability infrastructure with Terraform, Git, and CI/CD pipelines.

Skills

Observability

AI/ML automation

Cloud services (AWS/GCP)

Terraform

Git-based workflows

Kubernetes

CI/CD pipelines

Security/DevSecOps

Education

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science/Software Engineering or related

Tools

Grafana

Prometheus

kube-prometheus-stack

Grafana Alloy

Terraform

Git

AWS CloudWatch

CloudTrail

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.

SPACE SYSTEMS

At Rocket Lab, we’re not just launching rockets — we're building the future of space. Our Space Systems team builds everything from complete spacecraft, precision payloads to the components and subsystems that allow them to thrive in space, like solar panels, flight software, star trackers, optical systems, separation systems, radios, and more.

Our Space Systems team has enabled more than 1,700 missions, ranging from interplanetary exploration, in-space manufacturing to national security and defense initiatives. The team has built spacecraft, payloads, and components for missions to the Moon and Mars, working with partners including NASA, the Space Development Agency, and the U.S. Space Force. Whether it’s a single high-performance spacecraft, constellation, or the vertically integrated components that help them get to space — our world class Space Systems team is empowering some of the boldest and most ambitious space missions.

SENIOR DEVOPS ENGINEER I

Based out of Rocket Lab's global headquarters in Long Beach, CA, we are looking to hire a Senior DevOps Engineer I. In this role you will build, operate, and improve the observability platform that gives our teams clear, actionable insight into the health and performance of mission‑critical systems. This role sits within the DevSecOps organization and focuses on reliable, scalable telemetry collection, storage, visualization, and alerting across our environments.

This is a technical role for someone who enjoys making complex systems understandable and dependable. You will partner with Space Systems teams to improve monitoring coverage, alert quality, dashboard usability, and operational response. Your work will directly improve the reliability, performance, and security of software systems supporting space missions.

WHAT YOU’LL GET TO DO:

• Build, operate, and continuously improve the organization's observability stack, including Grafana, Grafana Mimir, kube-prometheus-stack, and Grafana Alloy.
• Design and maintain scalable metrics collection, ingestion, retention, and query patterns for Kubernetes and cloud-based workloads.
• Develop and maintain Grafana dashboards that provide actionable insights to engineering teams and leadership.
• Design, tune, and maintain alerting and notification workflows that reduce noise and enable timely, effective incident response.
• Partner with engineering teams to define meaningful service-level indicators, service-level objectives, and monitoring standards.
• Improve observability coverage by identifying telemetry gaps, analyzing trends, and implementing durable instrumentation and monitoring improvements.
• Integrate AWS CloudWatch and CloudTrail telemetry into the observability platform to support operational visibility, security monitoring, and troubleshooting.
• Manage observability infrastructure through version-controlled, automated deployments using Terraform, Git, and CI/CD pipelines.
• Drive continuous improvement through data-driven analysis of platform reliability, telemetry quality, dashboard adoption, and alert effectiveness.
• Troubleshoot complex monitoring, telemetry, and alerting issues across AWS, and GCP environments.
• Work with development teams through code reviews and integrated pipelines to ensure observability is built in from the start.
• Design and implement AI agents that detect, analyze, and troubleshoot software testing failures with minimal human intervention
• Build and maintain AI-powered quality automation ecosystems that monitor CI/CD pipelines across multiple programs and platforms

YOU’LL BRING THESE QUALIFICATIONS:

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, or other technical discipline
• 5+ years of experience in DevOps, site reliability engineering, platform engineering, or a related infrastructure discipline
• Hands‑on experience operating and improving production observability and monitoring platforms
• Demonstrated expertise in AI/ML technologies with hands‑on experience building AI-driven automation systems
• Experience with AWS and GCP cloud services
• Experience managing infrastructure as code with Terraform and collaborating through Git-based workflows
• U.S. citizenship is required, due to program requirements

THESE QUALIFICATIONS WOULD BE NICE TO HAVE:

• Experience with Splunk
• Experience administering and configuring data visualization and analytics platforms, such as Grafana
• Administration experience with Time Series Databases, such as Grafana Mimir
• Strong problem‑solving skills with an automation‑first mindset and a track record of improving reliability in production environments
• Experience deploying and managing Prometheus-based monitoring with kube-prometheus-stack
• Experience configuring and operating Grafana Alloy for telemetry collection and forwarding
• Strong understanding of CI/CD pipeline automation tools, DevSecOps practices, and Kubernetes operations
• Experience with cloud networking concepts and troubleshooting
• Experience building dashboards using tools like Grafana, Kibana, or custom visualization frameworks
• Knowledge of security testing tools and DevSecOps security practices
• Aerospace background supporting satellite, spacecraft, constellation, or launch vehicle ground/mission operations
• Expertise in Git-based workflows, CI/CD pipelines, and Kubernetes orchestration
• Experience with observability and monitoring tools
• Experience with Kubecost
• Operating and building solutions within GovCloud environment

This position may require prolonged periods of sitting, standing, walking, computer work, and occasional exposure to moderate levels of noise, dust, and fumes in production areas.

Anticipated annual equity grant value is designed around function, level, experience, and other factors; realized value depends on vesting and stock-price performance.

Join one of the world's fastest-growing space companies and own a piece of it. In addition to competitive base