Senior Ground Software Engineer, Space Systems

Rocket Lab Corporation; Long Beach (CA); On-site; USD 108,000 - 148,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Employee stock purchase program

Stock in compensation package

Medical, dental, vision plans

Paid time off and holidays

401(k) with company match

EV charging subsidies

Job summary

Rocket Lab’s Space Systems team is hiring a Ground Software Engineer II based in Long Beach, CA. You will shape the end-to-end architecture of ground software for spacecraft operations, collaborating with flight software, mission operations, and systems engineering to deliver scalable ground systems.

You will deploy and optimize the Ground Data System, establish monitoring frameworks, and provide architectural guidance to ensure resilience and long-term maintainability, while advising leadership

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in engineering or other technical discipline.
• 2+ years of relevant software development experience.
• Experience architecting web-based software systems at scale.
• 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

Software development

Web systems architecture

System thinking

Leadership

Technical direction

Education

Bachelor’s degree in engineering or other technical discipline

Tools

Python

Go

Rust

TypeScript

Angular

PostgreSQL

InfluxDB

FastAPI

Git

CI/CD

Kubernetes

Playwright

OAuth

Job description

Rocket Lab’s Space Systems team is hiring a Ground Software Engineer II based in Long Beach, CA. You will shape the end-to-end architecture of ground software for spacecraft operations, collaborating with flight software, mission operations, and systems engineering to deliver scalable ground systems.

You will deploy and optimize the Ground Data System, establish monitoring frameworks, and provide architectural guidance to ensure resilience and long-term maintainability, while advising leadership