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Salary: USD 116,800 - 160,600 / annual
Rocket Lab is seeking a Senior Program Manager I for Laser Communications to lead optical communication terminal programs from award through production, delivery, and on-orbit checkout. Based at Rocket Lab's headquarters in Long Beach, CA, you will serve as the customer's champion and delivery lead, owning day-to-day customer relationships, delivery commitments, schedules, milestones, acceptance reviews, risk management, and overall program health.
Key responsibilities include:
**Lead Delivery**: Manage terminal programs across current-generation production and next-generation variants, holding each program to plan and delivering on schedule, technical performance, and all customer commitments.
**Lead the Team of Teams**: Run multiple concurrent customer programs, collaborate closely with Chief Engineers on link performance, data rate, SWaP (Size, Weight, Power), environmental qualification, and optical terminal interoperability. Personally engage on critical delivery issues.
**Deliver at Rate**: Own each program's delivery profile, identify yield, supplier, and test-capacity risks early, and drive closure with Operations and Product teams.
**Forge the Supply Chain**: Partner with Supply Chain to manage critical suppliers as strategic partners, building relationships and accountability that keep customer deliveries on schedule.
**Run the Program Lifecycle**: Own program startup, baselining, milestone and qualification reviews, export and ITAR obligations with Trade Compliance, customer acceptance, and closeout across U.S. and European sites.
**Champion the Customer**: Be the trusted point of contact through milestone reviews, interoperability campaigns, acceptance, and delivery. Partner with Business Development and Strategy on proposals, and with Product on pricing and configuration.
**Raise the Bar**: Mentor team members, set high standards for customer engagement, and develop the next generation of program leaders.
Rocket Lab's Space Systems team has enabled over 1,700 missions, building spacecraft, payloads, and components for missions to the Moon and Mars, working with NASA, the Space Development Agency, and the U.S. Space Force. Laser communication is critical infrastructure for modern constellations, and this role scales industry-leading optical communication terminals to meet growing demand.
**Requirements:**
- Bachelor's degree in Engineering, Physics, or Math
- 8+ years of program management experience in aerospace, defense, or complex hardware/systems environments
- Demonstrated success leading multi-million-dollar programs with cross-functional teams
- Experience managing supplier relationships and supply chain risk in regulated environments
- Strong understanding of systems engineering, qualification, and production ramp
- Familiarity with export controls (ITAR) and government contracting preferred
- Excellent communication and stakeholder management skills
- Ability to work across U.S. and European sites
For U.S. office positions: Must be a U.S. citizen, lawful permanent resident (Green Card holder), refugee, or asylee, or be eligible to obtain required authorizations from the U.S. Department of State and/or Department of Commerce per ITAR regulations.
