Senior Manager, DevOps Engineering

About The Role

Rocket Lab is an end-to-end space company delivering responsive launch services, complete spacecraft design and manufacturing, payloads, satellite components, and more – all with the goal of opening access to space. The rockets and satellites we build and launch enable some of the most ambitious and vital space missions globally, supporting scientific exploration, Earth observation and missions to combat climate change, national security, and exciting new technology demonstrations.

SPACE SYSTEMS

At Rocket Lab, we’re not just launching rockets — we're 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 1,700 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.

Senior Manager, DevOps Engineering

As a Senior Manager, DevOps Engineering based at our Optical Systems site in Chantilly, VA, you will have the privilege of supporting Tranche 3 of the U.S. Space Development Agency's (SDA) Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture (PWSA) by managing a team of software development operations engineers that deploys applications for advanced space payloads.

• Lead a team of engineers across business level functions – enterprise tools, finance tools, engineering development process, software development integration and deployment.
• Drive best practices for AWS Cloud based architecture and development and production environments.
• Collaborate with project leaders and team members to meet mission objectives.
• Work directly with Security and IT for policy assurance.
• Develop and support pipelines that include automation and configurations for containers, data management, and release/deployment solutions for programs.
• Automate software deployments into varied and complex environments using virtual machines, container technologies, Kubernetes, Cloud environments, and bare metal servers.
• Support engagements related to assessing, refactoring and identifying opportunities for existing applications to leverage modern application architectures (e.g. containers).
• Lead Agile sprints and associated activities.
• Perform other duties as assigned.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in computer science, engineering, or an equivalent technical discipline.
• 1-3 years of software engineering or devops management experience.
• Active TS/SCI security clearance and Counterintelligence Polygraph.
• 10+ years of experience in architecting AWS cloud solutions with EC2, ELB, RDS, Route53, CloudWatch, or S3.
• Experience with DevOps tools and pipelines such as Bitbucket, Jenkins, SonarQube, or Artifactory.
• Experience with designing, enabling, delivering scalable and automated IaC tools such as Ansible and Terraform.
• Experience with containerization technologies Kubernetes or Docker.
• Experience with cloud network resources such as VPC, URL, DNS, ACLs, security, and routing tables.
• Experience with scripting or coding with Java, Python, Terraform, or Bash.
• Experience with cross-compilation for embedded systems.
• Proficiency in Linux system administration.
• CompTIA Security+ certification (or in pursuit of).
• AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Associate.

Nice to Have

• Master’s degree in computer science, engineering, or an equivalent discipline.
• Experience with on-premises to cloud migrations or IT transformations.
• Experience in database administration with MySQL, MariaDB, or PostgreSQL.
• Experience in AWS ElastiCache for Redis.
• Expertise in the Git version control system command line.
• Familiarity with Information Security frameworks including CIS, NIST, or RFC2196.
• Familiarity with Software Systems Security including ATO, CtF, or RMF.
• AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Professional.
• Excellent oral, written, and verbal communication skills.

What To Expect

We’re on a mission to unlock the potential of space to improve life on Earth, but that’s 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 other’s 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.