Senior Ground Software Architect – Space Systems

Rocket Lab Corporation; Long Beach (CA); On-site; USD 150,000 - 225,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Company equity

Robust benefits package

Top tier medical coverage

401(k) with company match

EV charging stations

Onsite gym

Food and drinks

Job summary

Rocket Lab in Long Beach, CA seeks a Senior Ground Software Engineer II to own major portions of spacecraft ground software architecture and drive scalable, reliable operations across Space Systems missions.

You will collaborate with flight software, mission operations, and systems engineers to translate mission needs into robust ground system designs, implement monitoring, and guide architectures for long‑term maintainability, resilience, and security.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in engineering or other technical discipline.
• 8+ 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

Systems architecture

Leadership

Reliability engineering

Education

Bachelor’s degree in engineering or other technical discipline

Tools

Python

Golang

Rust

Typescript

Angular

PostgreSQL

InfluxDB

Kubernetes

CI/CD

Playwright

Job description

Rocket Lab in Long Beach, CA seeks a Senior Ground Software Engineer II to own major portions of spacecraft ground software architecture and drive scalable, reliable operations across Space Systems missions.

You will collaborate with flight software, mission operations, and systems engineers to translate mission needs into robust ground system designs, implement monitoring, and guide architectures for long‑term maintainability, resilience, and security.