Principal Software Engineer

Rocket Lab

On-sitePosted July 25, 2026

About the role

Rocket Lab is seeking a Principal Software Engineer (TS/SCI) based at our Long Beach, CA headquarters to serve as the Chief Software Engineer for a major constellation program. In this role you will lead the design, development, and delivery of scalable, reliable, and mission-critical software for space-based applications, including flight software, embedded systems, and ground software. You will collaborate with systems teams, software engineers, and stakeholders to ensure mission success.

Principal Software Engineer

Rocket Lab

On-sitePosted July 25, 2026

About the role

Rocket Lab is seeking a Principal Software Engineer (TS/SCI) based at our Long Beach, CA headquarters to serve as the Chief Software Engineer for a major constellation program. In this role you will lead the design, development, and delivery of scalable, reliable, and mission-critical software for space-based applications, including flight software, embedded systems, and ground software. You will collaborate with systems teams, software engineers, and stakeholders to ensure mission success.

What you'll do: - Lead software architecture design for flight and ground systems, ensuring scalability, reliability, security, and mission success. - Develop flight software for RTOS such as VxWorks or embedded Linux, including drivers for sensors and actuators (IMUs, star trackers, reaction wheels). - Build ground software platforms for spacecraft operations, integrating flight and ground systems. - Create and run unit tests within a CI framework; work with hardware-in-the-loop test engineers to verify software-hardware integration. - Provide technical direction and mentorship to engineering teams; partner with leadership to align software with mission requirements. - Support on-orbit operations and performance in harsh environments.

What you'll bring: - Bachelor's degree in engineering, computer science, or related field. - 12+ years of professional software development experience, including embedded and ground software. - Proven experience architecting scalable software for aerospace/defense. - Proficiency in C/C++ for embedded development and Python for testing. - Experience with

Track similar jobs

Get email alerts when new roles like this are posted.

Based on: Principal Software Engineer

See how this role matches your resume

Sign in to get an AI match score and personalized feed.

Create account Sign in

More in Engineering

Product Fintech SaaS Remote-first Berlin

What you'll do: - Lead software architecture design for flight and ground systems, ensuring scalability, reliability, security, and mission success. - Develop flight software for RTOS such as VxWorks or embedded Linux, including drivers for sensors and actuators (IMUs, star trackers, reaction wheels). - Build ground software platforms for spacecraft operations, integrating flight and ground systems. - Create and run unit tests within a CI framework; work with hardware-in-the-loop test engineers to verify software-hardware integration. - Provide technical direction and mentorship to engineering teams; partner with leadership to align software with mission requirements. - Support on-orbit operations and performance in harsh environments.