Principal Software Engineer
About The Position
Rocket Lab Optical Systems develops mission-critical space-domain and intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance solutions for Department of Defense and Intelligence Community customers. The team builds sensing solutions for space, terrestrial, and airborne environments, drawing on more than 20 years of electro-optical and infrared systems innovation from Geost. As a Principal Software Engineer in Chantilly, Virginia, you will design flight software for spacecraft supporting Tranche 3 of the U.S. Space Development Agency’s Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture. You will help develop payload flight software for Space Systems programs, including deploying novel algorithms on austere, size-, weight-, and power-constrained sensor systems. The role provides technical leadership across software requirements, architecture, design, implementation, testing, and deployment. It also involves leading cross-functional teams, mentoring engineers, and supporting technical planning and delivery. The position may require prolonged periods of sitting, standing, walking, and computer work, as well as occasional exposure to moderate levels of noise, dust, and fumes in production areas. Candidates must be able to obtain and maintain a U.S. Government security clearance. For U.S. office candidates, Rocket Lab also states that employees must meet applicable U.S. technology export-control requirements, including ITAR eligibility.
Requirements
- Bachelor’s degree in computer science or computer engineering.
- 12 or more years of embedded software engineering experience.
- Experience designing complex multithreaded applications.
- Experience designing flight software.
- Ability to obtain and maintain a U.S. Government security clearance.
Nice To Haves
- Familiarity with high-performance and parallel processing.
- Exposure to novel architectures such as FPGA and CUDA.
- Familiarity with flight software system management.
- Experience with algorithm implementation.
- Exposure to Python and MATLAB; highly desired.
- Familiarity with numerical computing principles.
Responsibilities
- Support development of payload flight software for Space Systems programs.
- Deploy novel algorithms in austere environments on size-, weight-, and power-constrained sensor systems.
- Lead cross-functional teams in defining technical requirements and delivering integrated solutions.
- Provide technical leadership across software design and development, from requirements generation through implementation, testing, and deployment.
- Define and influence software architecture, design patterns, interfaces, and technical standards to support scalable, maintainable, and extensible solutions.
- Advance performance-oriented programming using a variety of accelerator technologies.
- Mentor engineers across experience levels, provide technical guidance, and foster engineering excellence and continuous improvement.
- Support technical planning, effort estimation, risk identification, dependency management, and milestone delivery.
- Communicate technical status and risks to stakeholders.
Benefits
- Company stock as part of total compensation.
- Employee Stock Purchase Program with a 15% discount on company stock.
- Medical plans.
- Dental coverage.
- Vision coverage.
- Paid vacation and sick time.
- 11 paid holidays.
- Flexible spending and dependent care accounts.
- Paid parental leave.
- Disability insurance.
- Life insurance.
- 401(k) retirement plan with company match.
- Other discounts and perks.
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What This Job Offers
Job Type
Full-time
Career Level
Principal
