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Salary: USD 143,300 - 0 / annual
Rocket Lab Optical Systems, part of Rocket Lab's Space Systems division, is seeking a Senior Software Engineer II to design flight software for spacecraft supporting the U.S. Space Development Agency's Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture (Tranche 3). This role focuses on developing payload flight software for mission-critical space domain and Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (ISR) applications serving Department of Defense and Intelligence Community customers.
You will play a key role in the full software development lifecycle—from requirements generation through implementation, testing, and deployment. The position emphasizes deploying novel algorithms into austere, Size/Weight/Power-constrained sensor systems operating in space. You'll drive core software fundamentals with a focus on performance-oriented programming, leveraging accelerator technologies such as FPGAs and CUDA to optimize computational efficiency in extreme environments.
Rocket Lab Optical Systems builds on over 20 years of electro-optical and infrared systems innovation and has enabled more than 1,700 missions, including interplanetary exploration, in-space manufacturing, and national security initiatives. The Space Systems division has delivered spacecraft and components for missions to the Moon and Mars in partnership with NASA, the Space Development Agency, and the U.S. Space Force.
Required qualifications include a Bachelor's degree in computer science or computer engineering, 8+ years of embedded software engineering experience, expertise in designing complex multithreaded applications, flight software design experience, and the ability to obtain and maintain a U.S. Government security clearance. Nice-to-have skills include familiarity with high-performance and parallel processing, novel architectures (FPGA, CUDA), flight software system management, algorithm implementation, Python and MATLAB proficiency, and numerical computing principles.
This is an individual contributor role at the senior level, requiring deep technical expertise in embedded systems and flight software without people management responsibilities.
