Senior Spacecraft Operations Engineer II​/Principal - Secret Clearance

About Rocket Lab

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. Come shape the future with us.

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. Come shape the future with us.

At Rocket Lab, we’re not just launching rockets — we're building the future of space. 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.

Our Space Systems team has enabled more than 1,700 missions, ranging from interplanetary exploration, in‑space manufacturing to national security and defense initiatives. The team has built spacecraft, payloads, and components for missions to the Moon and Mars, working with partners including NASA, the Space Development Agency, and the U.S. Space Force. Whether it’s a single high-performance spacecraft, constellation, or the vertically integrated components that help them get to space — our world class Space Systems team is empowering some of the boldest and most ambitious space missions

Based on site at Rocket Lab's headquarters in Long Beach, CA the Senior Spacecraft Operations Engineer II/Principal is responsible for ensuring the health, safety, and optimal performance of a growing fleet of satellites while meeting mission objectives and SLAs for both commercial and government customers. This includes supporting diverse missions such as LEO constellations, interplanetary exploration, LEO rendezvous, and SDA-related deployments.

Your expertise would be critical during commissioning, orbit raising, routine operations, and potentially re-entry phases, ensuring the health and safety of Rocket Lab’s expanding fleet. The Spacecraft Operations team works closely with related teams, such as spacecraft design, AIT, flight software, propulsion, GNC, flight dynamics and ground software development to help improve both the ground and satellite-based capabilities over time.

The space operations experience at Rocket Lab is unique because you will cover a multitude of roles/positions and responsibilities, with the large majority of the technical products being supplied through the vertical integration/in-house.

(

Please note:

This position can be hired at the Senior Engineer II or Principal level)

• 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…