Senior Development Engineer

Engineering is the heart of Rocket Lab. We build world-class rockets and spacecraft and we launch them, often.

As a Senior Development Engineer in Propulsion, you'll own what powers Electron to orbit: Engines, turbopumps, valves, injectors, and the fluid systems that feed them.

First sketch to flight-ready hardware, and the standard everyone else builds to. You'll define the requirements, iterate in NX with analysis and manufacturing, own the EBOM, and release the drawings that get parts built. Then you'll plan and run the campaign that proves it, component rigs to hot fire, and coach the ...

Technical standard -You define best practice, consistently pick the right solution, and coach the team to the same bar
Manage Risk -You see it before it happens, put the mitigation in place, and check it held
Unsolved problems -When something stalls between teams or falls outside anyone's process, you take it, unasked, and bring others up as you go
Planning -Department level plans, work distributed across the team, and the new processes and equipment that make the next engine faster than the last
Judgement -You're the technical tiebreaker. The deciding argument is always what's best for the company
The people around you -You run meetings that go somewhere, convey technical information concisely enough to change direction, and deputise for the lead when needed

Some days you're deep in test data. Others you're on the production floor, taking hard feedback from the technicians who build your parts or in the development lab, pushing a new concept or a flight-ready engine to its limits. Both are good days. This is not a desk job.

6+ year’s industry experience and an engineering degree.
Deep manufacturing and production understanding.
Experience taking a product from development into rate production.
Proven ability to technically steer a team across multiple engineering projects, concept through to operation, not one project, several.
Depth in at least two of these:
Skills that transfer. You don't need to have built a rocket. You need to have solved hard engineering problems well enough that the domain is the only new thing.
Structural: Will it hold up under load?
Vibration - How does it shake and resonate?
CFD - How do fluids and gases flow through it?
Thermal - How does heat move through it?
Fatigue and creep - Will it wear out or deform over time?
FMEA - What could go wrong, before it does?
Root cause - Why did it fail, and how do we stop it happening again?
Master's or PhD
Rocket, aerospace or automotive background
Applied analysis - structural, modal, CFD, thermal, fatigue, DFMEA/PFMEA or DMAIC
Experience with our toolset - NX, Teamcenter, JAMA and Jira. If you've used the equivalents, you'll pick these up fast