Senior Machine Learning Engineer II

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 MACHINE LEARNING ENGINEER II

Rocket Labs Optical Systems division solves mission-critical space domain and Intelligence Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) challenges for Department of Defense (DoD) and Intelligence Community (IC) customers. Our vision is to revolutionize the space-based payload market with innovative and novel designs for space terrestrial and airborne environments. Building on more than 20 years of electro-optical and infrared systems innovation Optical Systems delivers solutions to the warfighter for responsive scalable sensing solutions across all orbital domains.

As a Senior Machine Learning Engineer II based at our Optical Systems sites in Long Beach CA you will have the opportunity to support Tranche 3 of the U.S. Space Development Agencys (SDA) Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture (PWSA) and beyond by building deep learning neural networks for advanced Electro-Optical (EO/IR) image processing.

WHAT YOULL DO

• Contribute your experience to developing solutions for real-world problems.
• Design train and deploy machine learning models for Optical Systems applications
• Build and maintain ML pipelines for data ingestion feature engineering training and inference.
• Collaborate with other researchers/engineers on artificial intelligence machine learning and computer vision.
• Preform rapid prototyping and enhanced development to be integrated into operational systems.
• Perform troubleshooting bug fixes and maintenance of existing and new systems.
• Stay current with ML research and evaluate new tools frameworks and techniques

WHAT WERE LOOKING FOR IN A SENIOR MACHINE LEARNING ENGINEER II:

• Bachelors degree and 8 years of experience masters degree and 6 years of experience or a Ph.D. in Computer Science Electrical and Computer Engineering Mechanical Engineering Physics or related field
• Strong background in machine learning including model selection architecting training validation testing and deployment
• Experience in building deep learning neural network for computer vision image processing or video analysis (e.g. object detection image segmentation and tracking)
• Strong math background particularly linear algebra
• Proficiency in Python
• Experience with deep learning libraries (Keras TensorFlow Pytorch etc)
• Software engineering fundamentals: version control testing CI/CD containerization
• U.S. citizenship is required due to program requirements
• Ability to obtain and maintain an U.S. Government Security Clearance

NICE TO HAVE:

• Proficiency in C/C/Rust
• Experience curating quality real-world datasets for training deep learning models
• TS/SCI security clearance

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.