Senior DevOps Engineer I

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 humanitys 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.

SPACE SYSTEMS

At Rocket Lab were not just launching rockets were building the future of space. Our Space Systems team builds everything from complete spacecraft precision payloads to the components and subsystems that allow them to thrive in space like solar panels flight software star trackers optical systems separation systems radios and more.

Our Space Systems team has enabled more than 1700 missions ranging from interplanetary exploration in-space manufacturing to national security and defense initiatives. The team has built spacecraft payloads and components for missions to the Moon and Mars working with partners including NASA the Space Development Agency and the U.S. Space Force. Whether its a single high-performance spacecraft constellation or the vertically integrated components that help them get to space our world class Space Systems team is empowering some of the boldest and most ambitious space missions.

SENIOR DEVOPS ENGINEER I

Based out of Rocket Labs global headquarters in Long Beach CA we are looking to hire a Senior DevOps Engineer I. In this role you will build operate and improve the observability platform that gives our teams clear actionable insight into the health and performance of mission-critical systems. This role sits within the DevSecOps organization and focuses on reliable scalable telemetry collection storage visualization and alerting across our environments.

This is a technical role for someone who enjoys making complex systems understandable and dependable. You will partner with Space Systems teams to improve monitoring coverage alert quality dashboard usability and operational response. Your work will directly improve the reliability performance and security of software systems supporting space missions.

WHAT YOULL GET TO DO:

• Build operate and continuously improve the organizations observability stack including Grafana Grafana Mimir kube-prometheus-stack and Grafana Alloy.
• Design and maintain scalable metrics collection ingestion retention and query patterns for Kubernetes and cloud-based workloads.
• Develop and maintain Grafana dashboards that provide actionable insights to engineering teams and leadership.
• Design tune and maintain alerting and notification workflows that reduce noise and enable timely effective incident response.
• Partner with engineering teams to define meaningful service-level indicators service-level objectives and monitoring standards.
• Improve observability coverage by identifying telemetry gaps analyzing trends and implementing durable instrumentation and monitoring improvements.
• Integrate AWS CloudWatch and CloudTrail telemetry into the observability platform to support operational visibility security monitoring and troubleshooting.
• Manage observability infrastructure through version-controlled automated deployments using Terraform Git and CI/CD pipelines.
• Drive continuous improvement through data-driven analysis of platform reliability telemetry quality dashboard adoption and alert effectiveness.
• Troubleshoot complex monitoring telemetry and alerting issues across AWS and GCP environments.
• Work with development teams through code reviews and integrated pipelines to ensure observability is built in from the start.
• Design and implement AI agents that detect analyze and troubleshoot software testing failures with minimal human intervention
• Build and maintain AI-powered quality automation ecosystems that monitor CI/CD pipelines across multiple programs and platforms

YOULL BRING THESE QUALIFICATIONS:

• Bachelors degree in Computer Science Software Engineering or other technical discipline
• 5 years of experience in DevOps site reliability engineering platform engineering or a related infrastructure discipline
• Hands-on experience operating and improving production observability and monitoring platforms
• Demonstrated expertise in AI/ML technologies with hands-on experience building AI-driven automation systems
• Experience with AWS and GCP cloud services
• Experience managing infrastructure as code with Terraform and collaborating through Git-based workflows
• U.S. citizenship is required due to program requirements

THESE QUALIFICATIONS WOULD BE NICE TO HAVE:

• Experience with Splunk
• Experience administering and configuring data visualization and analytics platforms such as Grafana
• Administration experience with Time Series Databases such as Grafana Mimir
• Strong problem-solving skills with an automation-first mindset and a track record of improving reliability in production environments
• Experience deploying and managing Prometheus-based monitoring with kube-prometheus-stack
• Experience configuring and operating Grafana Alloy for telemetry collection and forwarding
• Strong understanding of CI/CD pipeline automation tools DevSecOps practices and Kubernetes operations
• Experience with cloud networking concepts and troubleshooting
• Experience building dashboards using tools like Grafana Kibana or custom visualization frameworks
• Knowledge of security testing tools and DevSecOps security practices
• Aerospace background supporting satellite spacecraft constellation or launch vehicle ground/mission operations
• Expertise in Git-based workflows CI/CD pipelines and Kubernetes orchestration
• Experience with observability and monitoring tools
• Experience with Kubecost
• Operating and building solutions within GovCloud environment

This position may require prolonged periods of sitting standing walking computer work and occasional exposure to moderate levels of noise dust and fumes in production areas.

WHAT TO EXPECT

Were on a mission to unlock the potential of space to improve life on Earth but thats not an easy task. It takes hard work determination relentless innovation teamwork grit and an unwavering commitment to achieving what others often deem impossible. Our people out-think out-work and out-pace. We pride ourselves on having each others backs checking our egos at the door and rolling up our sleeves on all tasks big and small. We thrive under pressure work to tight deadlines and our focus is always on how we can deliver rather than dwelling on the challenges that stand in the way.

Important information:

FOR CANDIDATES SEEKING TO WORK IN US OFFICES ONLY:

To conform to U.S. Government space technology export regulations including the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) Rocket Lab Employees must be a U.S. citizen lawful U.S. permanent resident (i.e. current Green Card holder) or lawfully admitted into the U.S. as a refugee or granted asylum or be eligible to obtain the required authorizations from the U.S. Department of State and/or the U.S. Department of Commerce as applicable. Learn more about ITAR here.

Rocket Lab provides equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants for employment and prohibits discrimination and harassment of any type without regard to race color religion age sex national origin disability status genetics protected veteran status sexual orientation gender identity or expression or any other characteristic protected by federal state or local laws. This policy applies to all terms and conditions of employment at Rocket Lab including recruiting hiring placement promotion termination layoff recall transfer leaves of absence compensation and training.

Applicants requiring a reasonable accommodation for the application/interview process for a job in the United States should contact Giulia Johnson at This dedicated resource is intended solely to assist job seekers with disabilities whose disability prevents them from being able to apply/interview. Only messages left for this purpose will be considered. A response to your request may take up to two business days.

FOR CANDIDATES SEEKING TO WORK IN NEW ZEALAND OFFICES ONLY:

For security reasons background checks will be undertaken prior to any employment offers being made to an applicant. These checks will include nationality checks as it is a requirement of this position that you be eligible to access equipment and data regulated by the United States International Traffic in Arms Regulations.

Under these Regulations you may be ineligible for this role if you do not hold citizenship of Australia Japan New Zealand Switzerland the European Union or a country that is part of NATO or if you hold ineligible dual citizenship or nationality. For more information on these Regulations click here ITAR Regulations.