Senior GNC Engineer II — Mission Formulation

Rocket Lab USA; Long Beach (CA); On-site; USD 162,000 - 243,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Equity grant

Employee stock purchase program

Top-tier medical plans

Dental and vision coverage

Paid vacation and holidays

401(k) retirement plan with company 
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EV charging subsidies

Onsite fitness centers

Misc employee discounts

Job summary

Rocket Lab USA is seeking a Senior GNC Engineer II - Mission Formulation to lead guidance, navigation, and control for launch programs. Based in Long Beach, CA or Littleton, CO, you’ll craft mission concepts, perform trajectory design, and collaborate with customers and internal teams to deliver high-stakes space missions.

You will develop real-time control algorithms, leverage Python/C++ and MATLAB tools, and contribute to mission analyses, HITL testing, and flight code releases for pre-launch

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in engineering (Aerospace/Mechanical/Electrical).
• 8+ years working experience in an engineering or analytical role.
• Proven experience developing real-time control and/or estimation algorithms in autonomous vehicles, preferably launch vehicles.

Responsibilities

• GNC contact to Business Development for proposals and mission definition.
• Launch and mission operational concept development.
• Orbital and suborbital trajectory design and analysis.
• Work with external stakeholders and customers for mission-specific requirements engineering.
• Document proposed GNC solutions and participate in design reviews with customers.
• Support hardware-in-the-loop (HITL) testing to verify trajectories, GNC, and flight code performance.
• Conduct Monte Carlo simulation analyses to define and verify launch and mission operations.
• Develop and support release of flight code for pre-launch ground testing, launch, and mission operations.
• Conduct flight safety analyses prior to launch and provide related day‑of‑launch support.
• Verify readiness of AFTS hardware and software.
• Develop tools and processes for automating GNC modelling and analysis tasks.

Skills

Real-time control

Estimation algorithms

Python development

C/C++

Git version control

Team collaboration

Education

Bachelor's degree in engineering (Aerospace/Mechanical/Electrical)

8+ years engineering/analytical experience

Tools

Python

MATLAB/SciPy

C/C++

Job description

Rocket Lab USA is seeking a Senior GNC Engineer II - Mission Formulation to lead guidance, navigation, and control for launch programs. Based in Long Beach, CA or Littleton, CO, you’ll craft mission concepts, perform trajectory design, and collaborate with customers and internal teams to deliver high-stakes space missions.

You will develop real-time control algorithms, leverage Python/C++ and MATLAB tools, and contribute to mission analyses, HITL testing, and flight code releases for pre-launch