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Salary: USD 108,800 - 136,000 / annual
Rocket Lab is seeking a Senior Integration & Test Engineer I to join its Space Systems team in Pasadena, CA. The Space Systems organization builds complete spacecraft, precision payloads, and critical subsystems (solar panels, flight software, star trackers, optical systems, separation systems, radios) that enable space missions. The team has enabled over 1,700 missions for partners including NASA, the Space Development Agency, and the U.S. Space Force, with work spanning interplanetary exploration, in-space manufacturing, and national security initiatives.
In this role, you will own integration and test campaigns for flight mechatronic and motion systems—including motor control electronics, actuators, motors, and mechanisms—from component level through subsystem and spacecraft integration. You will also develop, maintain, and upgrade test systems for this hardware, supporting senior engineering staff and reporting to internal leadership.
Key responsibilities include:
- Lead and own integration and test campaigns for flight motion systems at various assembly levels (actuators, mechanisms, subsystems, spacecraft)
- Integrate and test motor control electronics with motors, actuators, and mechanisms, including closed-loop performance characterization (torque, speed, position, current loop behavior)
- Collaborate with design, controls, and systems engineers to define requirements, V&V plans, and requirements compliance
- Develop and present materials for customer and company stakeholder reviews (SRR, PDR, CDR, TRR)
- Develop acceptance, qualification, and R&D test plans and procedures for flight mechanisms and motion systems
- Plan and execute environmental qualification and acceptance testing (vibration, shock, thermal vacuum, thermal, EMI/EMC) with functional and performance testing before, during, and after environmental exposure
- Develop, maintain, and operate mechanical and electrical ground support equipment (motor/load test stands, dynamometers, test fixtures)
- Develop and maintain test automation and data acquisition for motion systems; interface with ground test software and implement flight software configuration changes
- Lead investigations into anomalous mechanism and motor control behavior, driving root cause and corrective action
- Interface with hardware-in-the-loop test systems
REQUIREMENTS:
- Bachelor's degree in electrical, mechanical, mechatronics, aerospace, or related engineering discipline
- 5+ years of experience in test engineering or other hands-on engineering role
- Hands-on mechatronics experience integrating and testing motor control electronics, motors, actuators, or mechanisms
- Working knowledge of brushless DC, permanent magnet synchronous, or stepper motors, their drive electronics, and feedback sensors (encoders, resolvers, Hall sensors)
- Experience with environmental testing (thermal vacuum, random vibration testing)
- Proficiency with C, C++, Python, or MATLAB; and Windows 10 and Microsoft Office products
- Experience writing technical documentation (procedures, reports, requirements)
- U.S. citizenship due to program requirements (ITAR compliance)
NICE-TO-HAVE QUALIFICATIONS:
- Experience integrating and testing flight systems for spacecraft, launch vehicles, or aerospace platforms
- Experience with precision motion systems (gimbals, robotic arms, pointing mechanisms, deployment mechanisms, reaction wheels)
- Experience on hardware that completed formal qualification and acceptance testing with full V&V lifecycle
- Understanding of control systems fundamentals and motor control techniques (field-oriented control, current/velocity/position loop tuning)
- Clean room and ESD-sensitive equipment experience
- Hands-on electrical test equipment experience (PSU, oscilloscope, DMM, power analyzer, current probes)
- Test system design and implementation for electromechanical hardware
- Sensors, signal conditioning, and data acquisition electronics knowledge
- 3D CAD and ECAD software experience (SolidWorks, Altium preferred)
- Hardware-in-the-loop testing experience
