ABOUT ROCKET LAB
Rocket Lab is the end-to-end space company building rockets, spacecraft, and critical subsystems that keep the world connected, protected, expand humanity’s reach to the Moon, Mars, and beyond. We move fast, build real hardware for meaningful missions, and make the impossible routine. Come shape the future with us.
We’re building Neutron, a medium lift, reusable launch vehicle designed for constellation deployment, interplanetary missions, and human spaceflight. It's the most ambitious programme in our history, and the avionics that fly it are being designed, built, and tested in house and we are looking for a Principal Engineer to join the team doing it.
ABOUT THE ROLE
The Neutron Avionics team owns every avionics system on the vehicle. Flight computers, power distribution, sensing, comms, and the flexible harness assemblies that tie it all together. Almost all of it is developed and produced internally, which means the people who design it also see it fly.
As Principal Avionics Engineer, you are the technical authority for avionics hardware, circuit design, PCB layout, and test strategy and coverage. This is a hands on technical leadership role with no direct reports, your influence comes from your engineering judgement, your ability to solve problems nobody has solved before, and the engineers you make better along the way.
YOU’LL GET TO:
Own & Ship
Act as technical lead and subject matter expert for avionics hardware hands on, on the bench, and in the reviews
Take avionics components and architectures through the full lifecycle requirements R&D prototyping, qualification, and production
Review and approve engineering change, oversee board and flex assembly design, design analyses, and design validation
Solve & Fix
Own technical risk to avionics and to the vehicle, assessing probability and consequence, and making the trade calls
Lead root cause analysis on anomalies and failures, and make sure the fix sticks
Lead & Scale
Lead small teams through significant engineering challenges
Assess emerging technologies and shape the avionics technology pipeline and development strategy
Improve how we engineer: R&D practice, design for manufacture, engineering change, and the processes that let us scale
Grow & Deliver
Mentor and coach engineers at every level, contribute to performance reviews, and help shape resourcing plans, hiring strategy, and onboarding
YOU'LL BRING THESE QUALIFICATIONS:
Core requirements:
Bachelor's degree in a relevant engineering discipline, or equivalent professional experience
8+ years of relevant industry experience
High proficiency in at least two of: analogue design, high speed digital, power electronics
Strong command of electronics design tools, including circuit simulation and analysis
A genuine aptitude for technical guidance and mentoring, at any level
Excellent written and verbal communication, and demonstrated organisation and planning skills
BONUS POINTS FOR:
Hardware taken from concept all the way through to production
Understanding of space environmental testing vibration, shock, thermal, TVAC
Familiarity with formal systems engineering: requirements management, compliance matrices
Experience building and pitching business cases for capital investment
Experience setting technical strategy and communicating it to individual contributors
A track record of driving cross functional initiatives through influence rather than authority
EXPECTATIONS
Ownership mentality with the ability to drive tasks and projects to completion independently
Thrive in ambiguous, fast changing environments where requirements evolve rapidly
Balance speed with quality, move quickly while maintaining appropriate rigour
No task is beneath you, roll up your sleeves and do what's needed for mission success
Bias for action, prioritise getting hands on, building and testing hardware to get results early
WHAT NEXT
Design it, build it, watch it launch, then watch it come back. Apply now.
WHAT TO EXPECT
We’re on a…