Manufacturing Engineer II - Assembly & Integration
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.
About the role
This role focuses on improving manufacturing processes by conducting feasibility studies, supporting product design for manufacturability, and leading factory setup and optimization. It involves troubleshooting production issues, collaborating with cross-functional teams, driving process improvements, and supporting organizational efficiency through effective change management and business system enhancements.
- Prepare feasibility studies and conduct manufacturing technology Research & Development projects
- Partner with our Design Engineering teams to incorporate Design for Manufacture into our products to ensure robustness and manufacturability at scale
- Engineer and deliver our factories – design, procure, install, validate assembly, test and verification processes
- Support Development builds to uncover early learnings and resolve issues to accelerate the production ramp up
- Take engineering ownership of production lines to remove blockers, improve yield and increase build efficiency
- Triage and diagnose failures, conduct deep technical investigations and determine the right path forward including risk mitigation actions and root cause resolution
- Collaborate with cross functional teams to resolve complex issues
- Drive process improvements across manufacturing, test and integration
- Contribute to change management, assessing risk and impact of design or process changes
- Support business system and process improvements to drive increased organizational effectiveness and efficiency
Requirements
- Bachelor's degree in Electrical, Mechanical, Mechatronics, Computer Engineering, or similar
- 2+ years of technical experience in a Manufacturing, Production, or Process Engineering environment
- Hands-on experience solving problems in complex manufacturing systems
- Ability to effectively deliver on complex assignments with autonomy
- Foundational knowledge in complex manufacturing processes
Nice-to-have Qualifications
- Working experience with environmental acceptance/production acceptance testing, such as vibration, shock, thermal, and vacuum
- Understanding of instrumentation, interfaces, and sensors including power supplies, oscilloscopes, serial devices, switch topologies, accelerometers, thermocouples, RTDs, and 4-20mA sensors
- Experience with designing, implementing, and supporting a production line and/or build area
- Experience transitioning products from design to production as a part of cross-functional team in a fast-paced, iterative design environment
- Demonstrated experience with DFMEA, PFMEA methodologies, Fault Tree Analysis, Pareto analysis, root cause and corrective action
Work 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.
Benefits
- Competitive base pay with company stock as part of your total compensation package
- Industry-leading Employee Stock Purchase Program (with a 15% discount on company stock)
- Top-tier medical plans (HMO, PPO, and a zero cost HDHP option with a significant HSA company contribution)
- Dental and vision coverage
- Paid vacation and sick time, 11 paid holidays
- Flexible spending and dependent care accounts
- Paid parental leave
- Disability and life insurance
- 401(k) retirement plan with company match
- Subsidized EV charging
- Onsite fitness centers (where available) and discounted gym memberships
- Complimentary snacks and beverages
- 50% employee discount on our popular merch store
- Various other employee discounts
Pay
Base Pay Range (CA Only): $100,000 USD - $125,000 USD