Senior Flight Software Engineer

Senior Flight Software Engineer

Join Rocket Lab's Space Systems Software team as a Senior Flight Software Engineer, where you'll serve as a technical expert developing cutting-edge flight software for spacecraft on orbit, next-generation autonomous satellite constellations, and embedded systems for our hardware product lines including Gauss thrusters, reaction wheels, and Frontier radios.

What You'll Get To Do:

• Architect flight software solutions across three domains: sustaining engineering for current missions on orbit, next-generation FSW for autonomous satellite constellations (including C&DH, GNC/ACS, FDIR, mode management, and autonomy), and embedded software for hardware products like thrusters, reaction wheels, radios, star trackers, and IMUs
• Lead system trade studies and design solutions in collaboration with Avionics Hardware, GNC, and Operations teams, balancing technical excellence with schedule and budget constraints across a diverse portfolio
• Develop and maintain robust regression testing frameworks that span flight software and embedded software product lines, enabling rapid, reliable verification across missions and component releases
• Guide multi-disciplinary engineering teams through anomaly resolution, technical risk identification and mitigation, and delivery of complex aerospace systems from concept through on-orbit operation
• Define technical standards and best practices for the team, facilitate architecture meetings, approve designs, and communicate FSW architecture clearly to internal and external stakeholders
• Mentor junior engineers through code reviews, training delivery, and on-the-job coaching while role-modeling professional behavior and technical excellence

You'll Bring These Qualifications:

• Bachelor's degree in Software Engineering, Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, or similar, with minimum 5 years of professional experience in a relevant discipline
• Deep technical expertise in C/C++, avionics software, embedded systems development on resource-constrained hardware, and ideally direct experience with aerospace system development, integration, and on-orbit operations
• Strong software development skills including REST APIs, Linux development environments, TypeScript/JavaScript, NodeJS, Angular or similar frontend frameworks (React, Vue), Git, and Python
• Excellent problem-solving and communication abilities, with proven capacity to manage complex projects, adjust to evolving requirements, clearly articulate technical concepts, and inspire teams to deliver
• Cross-functional collaboration mindset with awareness of spacecraft disciplines such as propulsion, thermal, power, structures, GNC, and mechanisms, and ability to work effectively across diverse teams
• Ownership mentality and positive attitude, willing to tackle any problem, see challenges as motivation, maintain professionalism under pressure, and consistently demonstrate a "how can I help?" approach

These Qualifications Would Be Nice To Have:

• Experience with Docker/Kubernetes
• Network programming expertise (Sockets/WebSockets)
• Familiarity with NodeJS/NPM build systems and tooling
• Elasticsearch experience

If the above sounds like you apply now!