Spacecraft Operations Engineer II — Automation-Driven Missions

Rocketlab; Littleton (CO); On-site; USD 82,000 - 138,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical, dental, and vision insurance

401(k) retirement plan

Paid vacation, holidays and sick leave

Paid parental leave

Other discounts and perks

Job summary

Rocket Lab in Colorado is seeking a Spacecraft Operations Engineer II to manage health, safety, and performance of a growing satellite fleet across missions for commercial and government customers. Responsibilities include commissioning, orbit raising, routine operations, and re-entry, with close collaboration across design, software, propulsion, and ground systems teams.

The role offers hands-on space operations with in-house, vertical integration of most technical products, and can be filled

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in engineering or technical field.
• 2+ years in space mission design, satellite subsystems, ground systems or spacecraft ops.
• Knowledge of attitude control, power, comms, and on-orbit data handling.
• Understanding of space environment, orbital mechanics and dynamics.
• U.S. citizenship and ability to obtain security clearance.

Responsibilities

• Leverage automation to operate spacecraft with software-driven efficiency.
• Design, develop and test ground software for long-term space ops.
• Design, develop and test flight software sequences for fault management.
• Maintain continuous integration and test of operational code.
• Support on-call shifts and interface with multiple teams across sites.

Skills

Python

C/C++

Ruby

Education

Bachelor's degree in engineering

Tools

Git

CI/CD

Cloud infrastructure

Job description

Rocket Lab in Colorado is seeking a Spacecraft Operations Engineer II to manage health, safety, and performance of a growing satellite fleet across missions for commercial and government customers. Responsibilities include commissioning, orbit raising, routine operations, and re-entry, with close collaboration across design, software, propulsion, and ground systems teams.

The role offers hands-on space operations with in-house, vertical integration of most technical products, and can be filled