Senior Ground Software Architect, Space Systems

Rocket Lab USA; Long Beach (CA); On-site; USD 130,000 - 198,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Equity grant

Stock purchase program

Health plans (medical, dental, vision)

Paid time off and holidays

401(k) with company match

EV charging benefits

Onsite fitness

Job summary

Rocket Lab USA, based in Long Beach, CA, is seeking a Senior Ground Software Engineer I to drive the architecture of spacecraft ground software across missions. You will help define end-to-end ground systems architecture, ensuring scalability, reliability, and mission success for internal teams and customers.

You will collaborate with flight software, mission operations, and systems engineers to translate mission needs into robust designs.

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.
• Active Secret clearance or ability to obtain and maintain one.

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

Clearance eligibility

Full-stack development

Backend languages (Python/Golang/Rust)

Frontend (TypeScript)

Databases (InfluxDB/PostgreSQL)

CI/CD & Kubernetes

Education

Bachelor’s degree in engineering or technical discipline

Tools

Playwright

FastAPI

Kubernetes

Git-based workflows

Job description

Rocket Lab USA, based in Long Beach, CA, is seeking a Senior Ground Software Engineer I to drive the architecture of spacecraft ground software across missions. You will help define end-to-end ground systems architecture, ensuring scalability, reliability, and mission success for internal teams and customers.

You will collaborate with flight software, mission operations, and systems engineers to translate mission needs into robust designs.