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Rocket Lab is seeking a Senior Flight Dynamics Engineer to join its Space Systems team in Littleton, CO. You will perform tracking, navigation, maneuver planning, trajectory design, and collision avoidance analysis for Earth-orbiting, lunar, and interplanetary missions. Working alongside subject matter experts in systems, ground software, electrical, avionics, flight software, thermal, propulsion, and GNC disciplines, you'll solve complex problems—sometimes under time-critical conditions—that directly impact ambitious space missions.
Key responsibilities include developing and analyzing launch vehicle and spacecraft trajectories (ascent, orbit insertion, orbital maneuvers); performing orbital propagation, rendezvous planning, and station-keeping analysis; supporting mission design with launch window analysis, delta-V budgets, and contingency planning; interfacing with flight software and GNC teams to validate and optimize guidance profiles; generating trajectory data products and flight dynamics support for mission readiness reviews; contributing to in-house simulation tools and flight dynamics infrastructure; and supporting real-time mission operations including anomaly response and post-launch data analysis.
Required qualifications: Bachelor's degree in Aerospace, Space Systems, or equivalent Engineering/Applied Physics; 5+ years in mission design and flight dynamics; demonstrated knowledge of orbital mechanics (spaceflight dynamics, maneuver design, orbit determination, Kalman filtering); mission analysis experience with STK, Astrogator, GMAT, Monte, Copernicus, or equivalent; Python software development; Git or equivalent version control; Jira or equivalent project management; U.S. citizenship (program requirement).
Desirable qualifications include Master's degree in Aerospace Engineering or related field, active Secret or TS/SCI clearance, Monte Carlo numerical simulation experience, orbit determination analysis with ODTK or Orekit, team/software project management experience, and ability to work complex problems under time pressure.
