Principal Spacecraft Operations Engineer - Secret ClearanceActive$173K

Rocket Lab
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The opportunity

Rocket Lab is the end-to-end space company building rockets, spacecraft, and critical subsystems that keep the world connected, protected, expand humanity’s reach to the Moon, Mars, and beyond. We move fast, build real hardware for meaningful missions, and make the impossible routine.

What you'll do

  • Serve as the program's mission operations technical lead: set the technical direction and strategy for operations, plan and prioritize the work of the mission operations staff, and act as the primary operations point of contact for program-level design decisions and trades

  • Advocate for operability across the program: influence spacecraft and ground architecture upstream so vehicles are designed to be operated safely, efficiently, and autonomously, and push for changes to program design and execution when operational needs demand it

  • Own mission operations requirements and lead requirements validation and: verification for spacecraft missions and system-level capability and function

  • Define the automation strategy and lead the development of robust,: software-driven methods for mission operations, testing, and data analysis to ensure efficient, repeatable, and reliable spacecraft operation

  • Design, develop, and test flight software sequences and FDIR/telemetry: configurations to ensure spacecraft health and fault management through software-driven processes

  • Architect, develop, and test ground software for long-duration operations,: including scripting and automation frameworks that make operations robust, hands-off, and scalable across a growing fleet

What they're looking for

  • Establish and steward the integration, testing, and maintenance of mission: operations tooling and codebases, including CI, version control, and release discipline. Ensure the on-call or shift schedules of operations
  • Author and own interface specifications, CONOPS, contingency procedures, and: other operational design documents
  • Lead validation of flight products and procedures against spacecraft: simulation tools, including flatsat, HITL, SIL, and digital twins
  • Support AIT teams across multiple spacecraft integrated tests (TVAC, propulsion stack, DITL