Harness Design Engineer I

Rocket Lab•Long Beach, CA

1d•Onsite

About The Position

The Harness Design Engineer I is based at Rocket Lab’s global headquarters in Long Beach, California, and primarily designs electrical harnesses for spacecraft. The role organizes interfaces, selects components, specifies harness split locations and lengths, and generates design documentation that enables the spacecraft engineering team to create accurate CAD models. The engineer also assists with electrical engineering activities for spacecraft and space systems components, including circuit design, analysis, prototyping, and testing with avionics designers. The role supports harness layout and component selection, produces connector pinout tables based on spacecraft interconnect diagrams, maintains harness bills of materials in the product lifecycle management tool, and helps document electrical schematics and harness designs. Avionics work includes developing subsystem and component test plans, evaluating circuits for performance, reliability, and manufacturability, participating in internal and customer-facing reviews, and contributing to electronic assembly design on satellite and spacecraft programs.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in aerospace, mechanical, electrical, or another engineering discipline.
Experience with electrical engineering or avionics.
U.S. citizenship is required due to program requirements.

Nice To Haves

Master’s or Ph.D. in aerospace, mechanical, electrical, or another engineering discipline.
Experience in the aerospace or defense industry.
Experience supporting satellite development programs and satellite operations.
Thorough understanding of the space environment, orbital mechanics, and rigid body dynamics.
Experience with LTspice, Altium, and/or the Siemens software suite, such as Teamcenter.
Experience with requirement management tools such as JAMA.
Experience testing electrical subsystems and assemblies, including thermal vacuum or random vibration testing and hardware-in-the-loop (HITL) testing.
Proficiency in electronics principles and electrical systems, including power electronics, communication systems (e.g., RS-422, SPI, Ethernet, CAN bus), signal integrity, and grounding.
Proficiency with instrumentation, interfaces, and sensors, including power supplies, oscilloscopes, serial devices, accelerometers, thermocouples, RTDs, and 4–20 mA sensors.
Ability to work in a dynamic environment with competing priorities.

Responsibilities

Perform or support spacecraft harness design tasks, including harness layout, connector and backshell selection, wire selection, and shielding.
Generate pinout tables for harness connectors at both ends of an assembly based on spacecraft interconnect diagrams.
Create and maintain harness bills of materials in the product lifecycle management (PLM) tool.
Assist in creating documentation for electrical system schematics and harness designs.
Develop test plans and procedures for avionics subsystems and components.
Perform analysis and evaluations to optimize spacecraft avionics circuits for performance, reliability, and manufacturability.
Participate in internal design and customer-facing review meetings as a representative of the avionics electrical engineering team.
Work with multidisciplinary teams to assist in designing electronic assemblies for satellite and spacecraft programs.
Assist avionics designers with circuit design, analysis, prototyping, and testing.

Benefits

Company stock as part of total compensation.
Employee Stock Purchase Program with a 15% discount on company stock.
Medical plans, including HMO, PPO, and a zero-cost HDHP option with a company HSA contribution.
Dental and vision coverage.
Paid vacation and sick time.
11 paid holidays.
Flexible spending and dependent care accounts.
Paid parental leave.
Disability and life insurance.
401(k) retirement plan with company match.
Subsidized EV charging.
Onsite fitness centers where available.
Discounted gym memberships.
Complimentary snacks and beverages.
50% employee discount on the company merchandise store.
Other employee discounts.