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Rocket Lab is seeking a Senior Flight Dynamics Engineer II to join its Space Systems team in Littleton, Colorado. In this role, you will design and execute tracking, navigation, maneuver planning, trajectory analysis, and collision avoidance operations for Earth-orbiting, lunar, and interplanetary missions. You'll work alongside subject matter experts across Systems, Ground Software, Electrical, Avionics, Flight Software, Thermal, Propulsion, and GNC disciplines to solve complex problems, often under time-critical conditions.
Key responsibilities include developing and analyzing launch vehicle and spacecraft trajectories (ascent, orbit insertion, orbital maneuvers), performing orbital propagation and rendezvous planning, supporting mission design with launch window analysis and delta-V budgets, and interfacing with flight software and GNC teams to validate guidance profiles. You will generate trajectory data products for mission readiness reviews, contribute to in-house simulation tools and flight dynamics infrastructure, and support real-time mission operations including anomaly response and post-launch analysis.
Rocket Lab's Space Systems team has enabled over 1,700 missions ranging from interplanetary exploration and in-space manufacturing to national security and defense. The team has built spacecraft and components for missions to the Moon and Mars, partnering with NASA, the Space Development Agency, and the U.S. Space Force.
Required qualifications: Bachelor's degree in Aerospace, Space Systems, or equivalent Engineering/Applied Physics; 8+ years in mission design and flight dynamics; demonstrated knowledge of orbital mechanics, spaceflight dynamics, maneuver design, orbit determination, and Kalman filtering; experience with mission analysis tools (STK, Astrogator, GMAT, Monte, Copernicus, or equivalent); Python software development; Git or equivalent version control; Jira or equivalent project management; U.S. citizenship required due to program requirements.
Desirable qualifications include Master's degree in Aerospace Engineering, active Secret or TS/SCI clearance, Monte Carlo simulation experience, orbit determination analysis (ODTK, Orekit), team/software project management experience, and ability to work complex problems under pressure.
