SlipstreamJobs tracks this role from the company's public career site. Apply directly on the employer's site.
Rocket Lab is seeking a Senior Ground Software Engineer to serve as a technical authority for spacecraft ground software across Space Systems missions. Based at Rocket Lab's Long Beach headquarters, you will define and evolve the end-to-end architecture of ground systems, ensuring scalability, reliability, and mission success for both internal teams and external customers. This role is highly visible, with deliverables supporting internal leadership, the board, and investors.
Key responsibilities include owning major architectural components of Rocket Lab's web-based ground software platforms for spacecraft operations. You will partner with flight software developers, mission operations personnel, and systems engineers to translate mission needs into scalable ground system designs. You'll deploy, configure, and optimize the Rocket Lab Ground Data System for diverse mission profiles, and establish robust monitoring, alerting, and reliability frameworks to proactively detect and mitigate issues.
You will provide technical direction and architectural guidance to ensure mission resilience, system integration, and long-term maintainability. As a trusted advisor to leadership, you'll shape ground software strategy, identify risk areas, and evaluate emerging technologies.
Required qualifications include a Bachelor's degree in engineering or related technical discipline, 5+ years of professional software development experience, and a proven track record architecting web-based software systems at scale. Strong systems-level thinking with ability to balance technical trade-offs across performance, security, and maintainability is essential. U.S. citizenship is required due to program requirements, and you must have an active Secret clearance or ability to obtain and maintain one.
Desirable experience includes an active TS clearance, full-stack development (Python, Golang, Rust backend; TypeScript/Angular frontend; InfluxDB/PostgreSQL databases), end-to-end testing frameworks like Playwright, and aerospace background supporting satellite or spacecraft operations. Microservice architectures, distributed systems, Git workflows, CI/CD pipelines, Kubernetes orchestration, modern authentication frameworks, and knowledge of CCSDS standards are also valued.
