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Rocket Lab is seeking a Senior Manufacturing Engineer to lead avionics and test operations for rocket and spacecraft production. This hands-on role bridges manufacturing engineering and product design, focusing on electro-mechanical systems debugging, test process optimization, and design-for-manufacturability integration.
Key responsibilities include preparing feasibility studies and conducting manufacturing R&D projects; partnering with design teams to embed manufacturability into products; engineering and validating assembly, test, and verification processes; supporting development builds to accelerate production ramp; owning production lines to improve yield and efficiency; triaging and diagnosing failures with deep technical investigation; collaborating cross-functionally on complex issues; and driving process improvements across manufacturing, test, and integration.
You will take engineering ownership of production blockers, conduct root cause analysis, manage change impact assessments, and support organizational process improvements. The role requires hands-on technical depth in complex manufacturing systems, particularly electro-mechanical debugging and avionics integration.
Required qualifications: Bachelor's degree in Electrical, Mechanical, Mechatronics, or Computer Engineering; 5+ years in manufacturing, production, or process engineering; proven ability to identify and solve systemic problems in complex manufacturing; autonomy managing multiple complex assignments; ability to coach and mentor across teams; detailed technical knowledge of complex manufacturing processes; hands-on debugging of electro-mechanical systems; and significant data acquisition and analysis experience.
Desirable experience includes environmental acceptance/production acceptance testing (vibration, shock, thermal, vacuum); instrumentation and sensor knowledge (power supplies, oscilloscopes, accelerometers, thermocouples, RTDs); production line and build area design/implementation; product transition from design to production in fast-paced environments; and DFMEA, PFMEA, Fault Tree Analysis, and Pareto analysis methodologies.
