Senior Ground Software Architect — Space Systems

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

Job summary

Rocket Lab in Littleton, CO is seeking a Senior Ground Software Engineer I to serve as a technical authority for spacecraft ground software across Space Systems missions. You will define and evolve end-to-end ground system architectures to ensure scalability and mission success for internal teams and external customers.

This highly visible role reports to leadership, collaborating with flight software, mission operations, and systems engineers, and guiding ground software strategy, risk areas,

Qualifications

• 5+ years of professional software development experience.
• Proven track record architecting web-based software systems at scale.
• U.S. citizenship is required due to program requirements.

Responsibilities

• Own major parts of architecture and evolve Rocket Lab’s web-based ground software for spacecraft operations.
• Collaborate with flight software, 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-based architecture

Systems thinking

Security & performance

Education

Bachelor’s degree in engineering or technical field

Tools

Kubernetes

Git

Playwright

PostgreSQL

InfluxDB

Job description

Rocket Lab in Littleton, CO is seeking a Senior Ground Software Engineer I to serve as a technical authority for spacecraft ground software across Space Systems missions. You will define and evolve end-to-end ground system architectures to ensure scalability and mission success for internal teams and external customers.

This highly visible role reports to leadership, collaborating with flight software, mission operations, and systems engineers, and guiding ground software strategy, risk areas,