Senior Program Manager I - Flatellite

Rocket Lab•Long Beach, CA

15d•Onsite

About The Position

Based at Rocket Lab's global headquarters in Long Beach, CA, you are the program authority for high-volume satellite production. You own rate, yield, unit cost, and strategic program decisions from prototype maturity through full-rate production. This is a high-ownership role: anyone can build one exquisite satellite — you'll build hundreds, on rate, on cost, on a learning curve that bends faster than the competition's — and you'll be the person the line runs on.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in physics, math, science, or other technical discipline
5+ years of program management experience
A demonstrated track record of owning a technical program, product, or team end to end and carrying it across the finish line under real pressure, we hire on what you've shipped, not years logged
Evidence you've moved real hardware and software from prototype toward high-rate production, with quantified yield, throughput, and cost gains
Understanding of the nuances of takt time, line-of-balance, design-for-manufacturing, and learning-curve economics
Experience identifying tooling, supply-chain, or yield risk and neutralizing it before it slows the line
U.S. citizenship with ability to obtain and maintain a security clearance

Nice To Haves

A proven playbook for transitioning low-volume prototypes into full-rate production without sacrificing mission reliability.
Deep experience scaling satellite, aerospace, or analogous complex hardware production at volume.
A repeatable record of bending unit cost down at rate without sacrificing reliability.
A Master's degree in Engineering, Operations, or a related field.
You speak Systems Engineering, trade studies, interface control, requirement integrity and use Jira, Confluence, and ERP/MRP to keep program health visible at speed.
Multiple program cycles or 8+ years in aerospace/defense sharpen the edge, but we weight the hardest thing you've shipped over the count.

Responsibilities

Build and lead the team that takes satellites at high volume from a “blank sheet” concept through qualification, full-rate production, and flight, and own the technical roadmap that grows the team's core capabilities.
Run multiple active programs at once, make sound architectural calls with Chief Engineers, navigate the hardest trade-offs in design-for-manufacturing, takt time, line-of-balance, and rate-readiness versus reliability, and personally dive into the most line-threatening problems alongside the team.
Grow a culture where strong people take smart, healthy risks and the best idea wins, no matter who it comes from, we back bold calls and treat an intelligent miss as the cost of moving fast and coach and develop the next generation of program and team leaders.
Manage high-stakes subcontracts and suppliers as strategic partners essential to the mission, protecting schedule and margin.
Synchronize cross-functional teams across manufacturing, supply chain, integration, and test and clear roadblocks quickly so the team keeps moving at speed and quality stays high.
Serve as the primary point of contact for assigned commercial constellation operators, and partner with BD & Strategy on proposals and technical narratives that define the next generation of constellation production.