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Rocket Lab is seeking a Senior Spacecraft Propulsion Systems Engineer II to join the propulsion engineering team in Long Beach, CA. This role offers system-level and component-level ownership of spacecraft propulsion and fluidic development, supporting civil, commercial, and defense space missions.
Key responsibilities include owning development of new or existing propulsion products and systems, acting as technical lead to guide teams through end-to-end development. You will perform conceptual and detailed performance calculations, systems modeling, analysis, and design. Requirements gathering, definition, and management fall under your purview, along with systems engineering activities and leadership within the team.
You will lead test planning, setup, instrumentation, execution, and data analysis. Communication with internal and external project stakeholders is essential, as is technical risk-based decision making when facing engineering challenges. Project management duties include schedule building and maintenance, identifying priorities, tasking engineers and technicians, and communicating status to leadership.
Mentorship and coaching of team members on technical and professional development is a core expectation. You will define and maintain standards of excellence through documentation, training, coaching, and review of others' work. Contributing to engineering process development and documentation at Rocket Lab related to your areas of expertise rounds out the role.
Required qualifications include a Bachelor's degree in aerospace, mechanical, mechatronics, or related engineering discipline, plus 8+ years of propulsion system development or high-performance field experience. US citizenship is required due to program requirements. Expertise in propulsion system modeling, static and transient analysis, and model validation using tools like Amesim, EcosimPro, Simulink, or Simscape is essential. You must have end-to-end development process experience including requirements, design, qualification, production, and acceptance testing. Systems Engineering V experience and risk-based decision making are required. Experience with different storable propellants (electrical and chemical) is necessary.
Desirable qualifications include passion for engineering with a curious mindset, demonstrated hands-on skills, comfort with ambiguity, and ability to make decisions using engineering principles and physics-based models. Experience with Jama, Python for data manipulation, NX CAD, GD&T, PLM software (Teamcenter preferred), National Instruments data acquisition, and flight hardware testing are valued.
