Senior Ground Software Architect - Space Missions

Rocket Lab USA; Littleton (CO); On-site; USD 115,000 - 155,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Stock options

401(k) retirement plan

Medical, dental, vision insurance

Paid vacation and leave

Job summary

Rocket Lab USA is seeking a Senior Ground Software Engineer I at our Littleton, CO site. You will serve as a technical authority for spacecraft ground software, helping define end-to-end ground system architecture to support internal teams and external customers.

The role offers visibility at leadership levels and cross-team collaboration. Responsibilities include evolving web-based ground platforms, deploying and optimizing ground data systems, and mentoring engineering peers.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in engineering or other technical discipline.
• 5+ years of relevant work experience in professional software development.
• Proven track record architecting web-based software systems at scale.
• Strong systems-level thinking, with ability to balance technical trade-offs across performance, security, and maintainability.
• U.S. citizenship is required, due to program requirements.

Responsibilities

• Own major parts of architecture and evolve Rocket Lab's web-based ground software platforms for spacecraft operations.
• Partner with flight software developers, mission operations personnel, and systems engineers to translate mission needs into scalable ground system designs.
• Deploy, configure, and optimize the Rocket Lab Ground Data System for diverse mission profiles.
• Establish robust monitoring, alerting, and reliability frameworks to proactively detect and mitigate issues.
• Provide technical direction and architectural guidance to ensure mission resilience, system integration, and long-term maintainability.
• Serve as a trusted advisor to leadership on ground software strategy, risk areas, and emerging technologies.

Skills

Web architecture

Systems thinking

Leadership

Reliability engineering

Security awareness

Education

Bachelor's degree in engineering or technical field

Tools

Python

Golang

Rust

Typescript

Angular

PostgreSQL

InfluxDB

Kubernetes

Git & CI/CD

Job description

Rocket Lab USA is seeking a Senior Ground Software Engineer I at our Littleton, CO site. You will serve as a technical authority for spacecraft ground software, helping define end-to-end ground system architecture to support internal teams and external customers.

The role offers visibility at leadership levels and cross-team collaboration. Responsibilities include evolving web-based ground platforms, deploying and optimizing ground data systems, and mentoring engineering peers.