Senior Flight Dynamics Engineer II - Trajectory Design

Rocket Lab Corporation; Long Beach (CA); On-site; USD 162,000 - 270,000; Full time

Job summary

Rocket Lab, a leading space company, seeks a Senior Flight Dynamics Engineer II to design trajectories for Earth orbiting, lunar, and interplanetary missions from the Long Beach HQ. You will collaborate with Systems, Ground Software, Electrical, Avionics, and other engineering teams to ensure safe, efficient guidance and mission success.

You will handle ascent, orbit insertion, and orbital maneuvers planning, perform propagation and rendezvous analysis, and contribute to in-house simulations

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Aerospace, Mechanical, Space Systems, or Software Engineering, or an equivalent Engineering or Applied Physics degree.
• 8+ years of experience in mission design, flight dynamics.
• Understanding of orbital mechanics, Orbit determination theory.
• Mission analysis with STK, Astrogator, GMAT, Monte, Copernicus, or equivalent.
• Python software development.
• Git version control, or an equivalent version control system.
• Jira software project management or equivalent.
• Active Secret clearance, with ability to obtain TS/SCI
• U.S. citizenship is required, due to program requirements

Responsibilities

• Develop and analyze launch vehicle and spacecraft trajectories, including ascent, orbit insertion, and orbital maneuvers
• Perform orbital propagation, rendezvous planning, and station-keeping analysis for spacecraft operations
• Support mission design including launch window analysis, delta-V budgets, and contingency planning
• Interface with flight software and GNC teams to validate and optimize guidance profiles
• Generate and deliver trajectory data products and flight dynamics support for mission readiness reviews
• Contribute to development of in-house simulation tools and flight dynamics infrastructure
• Support real-time mission operations including anomaly response and post-launch data analysis

Skills

Orbital mechanics

Flight dynamics

Secret clearance

U.S. citizenship

Python programming

Git version control

Jira

Education

Bachelor’s degree in Aerospace/Mechanical/Space Systems or Software Engineering

Master’s degree in Aerospace Engineering or related field

Tools

STK

Astrogator

GMAT

Monte Carlo

Copernicus

Python

Git

Jira

Job description

Rocket Lab, a leading space company, seeks a Senior Flight Dynamics Engineer II to design trajectories for Earth orbiting, lunar, and interplanetary missions from the Long Beach HQ. You will collaborate with Systems, Ground Software, Electrical, Avionics, and other engineering teams to ensure safe, efficient guidance and mission success.

You will handle ascent, orbit insertion, and orbital maneuvers planning, perform propagation and rendezvous analysis, and contribute to in-house simulations