Senior Spacecraft Propulsion Components Engineer II

Senior Spacecraft Propulsion Components Engineer II

Rocket Lab is an end-to-end space company delivering responsive launch services, complete spacecraft design and manufacturing, payloads, satellite components, and more – all with the goal of opening access to space. The rockets and satellites we build and launch enable some of the most ambitious and vital space missions globally, supporting scientific exploration, Earth observation and missions to combat climate change, national security, and exciting new technology demonstrations.

Our Space Systems team builds everything from complete spacecraft, precision payloads to the components and subsystems that allow them to thrive in space, like solar panels, flight software, star trackers, optical systems, separation systems, radios, and more.

We are currently seeking a Senior Spacecraft Propulsion Components Engineer II for our propulsion engineering team based out of Long Beach, CA. As a Propulsion Components Engineer, you are responsible for system-level and component-level ownership of space systems propulsion and fluidic development. These teams support our Space Systems division, and lead cutting-edge programs for civil, commercial, and defense customers.

What You'll Get To Do:

• Owning development of new or existing products or systems, acting as technical lead to guide team through end-to-end development process.
• Conceptual and detailed designs in CAD for propulsion system components as well as performance calculations, and analysis.
• Review and approval of others' drawings, 3D PMI, reports, and specifications.
• Test planning, setup, instrumentation, execution, and data analysis.
• Communicating with project stakeholders internal and external to the team.
• Technical risk-based decision making to the right/best solution when faced with an engineering challenge.
• Project management including schedule building and maintenance, identifying top priority items, tasking of other engineers and technicians, and communication of status to leadership and other teams.
• Mentorship and coaching of people within the team on technical and professional development.
• Defining and maintaining standard of excellence for their team through documentation, training, coaching, and review of others' work.
• Contributing to engineering process development and documentation at Rocket Lab related to areas of experience.

You'll Bring These

Qualifications:

• 8+ years of experience in propulsion system development, or equivalent high-performance field
• Bachelor's degree in engineering, (aerospace, mechanical, mechatronics, or other technical engineering discipline)
• Detailed mechanical design experience using NX (preferred) or equivalent industry standard CAD software and Product Lifecycle Management software such as Teamcenter (preferred), Windchill, or similar
• Track record of design reviews and approving release of flight parts, qual reports and decisions for flight hardware
• Experience with end-to-end development process including gathering requirements, detailed design, qualification, production, and acceptance testing
• Excellent communication skills and the ability to work well within a team environment
• Hands-on integration and testing experience (ideally using NI equipment and software)
• Experience working on propulsion systems utilizing different storable propellants, such as electrical and chemical
• US citizenship and willingness to obtain a security clearance required, due to program requirements

These Qualifications Would Be Nice To Have:

• A genuine passion for engineering, curious mindset, and willingness to learn
• Comfortable working with high levels of ambiguity. Makes decisions using basic engineering principles, available literature and standards, technical risk assessments, test data, and physics-based models
• Practice in identifying the necessary steps to achieve high level technical goals, scheduling them in a plan, and managing delivery against that plan
• Experience developing requirement and verification sets, as well as writing test plans, performing testing, and writing test reports
• Capabilities using Python for data manipulation and post-processing
• Demonstrated hands on engineering skills, inside…