Rocket Lab USA
Senior Spacecraft GNC Engineer I - Secret Clearance
East Long Beach, Los Angeles County · Senior
Stay score
odds of building a lasting career here
Sponsors, but it's cap-subject — you still face the weighted lottery (~61% per draw at Level IV). Good if you win; have a cap-exempt backup on your list.
Lottery odds assume a STEM candidate.
Personalize to your clock →H-1B wage level
the lottery is wage-weighted — each level is one more entry
$5,301 more — $137,301 — moves this role to Level II and 2 lottery entries. That figure is inside the range the employer already advertised.
Based on the DOL prevailing wage for this occupation and worksite, a base salary of $137,301 would place this position at wage Level II. That figure is within the posted range, and I'd like to target it. This role classifies under "Aerospace Engineers" for prevailing-wage purposes.
DOL prevailing wage, 2026-27 wage year · Aerospace Engineers (17-2011) · Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA. Wage level is derived by USCIS from the offered wage, occupation and worksite; the occupation shown is inferred from the job title.
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About the role
- You will demonstrate a firm grasp of spacecraft GNC concepts and applications.
Requirements
- B.S and 5+ years of industry experience in GNC/ADCS
- Active Secret clearance, with ability to obtain TS/SCI
- U.S citizenship is required, due to program requirements
Nice to have
- Active TS/SCI clearance
- Experience in Jira planning and workflow
- Prior experiencing mentoring a team of younger engineers
- Hands-on experience with IMU, reaction wheels, star trackers, gyroscopes, and other GNC hardware
- Demonstrated experience with spacecraft on-orbit operations and anomaly resolution
- Prior experience leading a team across a project lifecycle (not necessarily a spacecraft, not necessarily a whole GNC system)
- Prior experience working multiple projects simultaneously and determining priorities for a team
- Experience with GNC-related Business Development or conceptual design work
Skills
- Design of flight software, algorithms, and simulation product
- Development of spacecraft autonomy tools for constellation management
- GNC component selection and GNC subsystem design
- Test process development and execution
- Define fault detection and response
- Hardware-in-the-loop and Monte Carlo simulation
- Integration of flight and simulation software with modern analysis, test, and operations tools
- Support internal and external design reviews
- Coordinate with teams in Denver, Colorado and New Zealand
Compensation
- $132k-$198k
Company info
- You will also directly interact with customers to ensure mission success.
Visa & Work Authorization
- S citizenship is required, due to program requirements
This listing is sourced directly from Rocket Lab USA's careers page and normalized into a canonical job model.