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Salary: USD 174,800 - 0 / annual
Rocket Lab is seeking a Director of IT Infrastructure to lead global IT operations and strategy. Based in Long Beach, CA (with option for Auckland, NZ), this role reports to the CIO and owns the development of IT support system strategies, processes, and procedures to deliver reliable, scalable information technology solutions across the company's expanding operations.
Key responsibilities include building and leading a high-performing team of IT engineers distributed globally, with focus on enabling Rocket Lab's engineering teams to design and manufacture world-class rockets and satellite technology. You will serve as a technical leader in compute, storage, networking, operating systems, and DevOps technologies required to support a dynamic engineering and manufacturing organization.
You will define and manage IT infrastructure priorities in collaboration with Space Systems and Launch Operations leadership, ensuring aggressive business objectives are met. You'll develop industry-leading processes for managing global infrastructure services across multiple Rocket Lab facilities, balancing on-premises and cloud-based infrastructure while maintaining high availability and uptime. Security and compliance standards are critical—you'll ensure the fleet of infrastructure equipment meets all requirements.
Additional responsibilities include vendor relationship management and procurement negotiations for IT software and hardware, developing a 24/7 global support model, and traveling domestically and internationally up to 30% of the time to support IT infrastructure operations.
Required qualifications: 12+ years of IT infrastructure experience with increasing responsibility in operations, data centers, virtualization, Office 365, networks, support, and security. You must have IT leadership experience in globally diverse organizations, background in high-tech, engineering, or manufacturing sectors, a bachelor's degree in computer science or information systems, and US citizenship (required due to program requirements).
Desirable experience includes high-availability 24/7 cloud/AWS/Azure and on-premises environments, technical expertise in Windows, Linux, VMware, iSeries, networking, SAN, switches, firewalls, and WiFi infrastructure, M&A experience (due diligence, integration planning), and rapid growth environment exposure.
