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Rocket Lab is seeking a Senior Ground Software Engineer II to serve as a technical authority for spacecraft ground software across Space Systems missions. Based at the 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.
Key responsibilities include owning major architectural components of web-based ground software platforms for spacecraft operations, partnering with flight software developers and mission operations personnel to translate mission needs into scalable designs, and deploying and optimizing the Rocket Lab Ground Data System for diverse mission profiles. You will establish robust monitoring, alerting, and reliability frameworks to proactively detect and mitigate issues, provide technical direction and architectural guidance to ensure mission resilience and long-term maintainability, and serve as a trusted advisor to leadership on ground software strategy, risk areas, and emerging technologies.
Required qualifications include a Bachelor's degree in engineering or related technical discipline, 8+ 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 qualifications include active TS clearance, full-stack development experience (Python, Golang, Rust backend; TypeScript and Angular frontend; InfluxDB or PostgreSQL databases), experience with end-to-end testing frameworks like Playwright, aerospace background supporting satellite or spacecraft operations, expertise in microservice architectures and distributed systems, demonstrated leadership in end-to-end system design, proficiency with Git workflows and CI/CD pipelines, Kubernetes orchestration, and knowledge of CCSDS standards including Space Packet Protocol and COP-1.
