About this job

Rocket Lab is seeking an experienced and skilled Propulsion Development Engineer to work within Rocket Lab’s Propulsion Team to develop and improve the performance and production of propulsion components and assemblies used in the Electron Launch Vehicle.

As Propulsion Development Engineer you will work closely with the R&D team in Auckland (including design, analysis, manufacturing and testing) and from time to time you will also be involved in activities undertaken within Rocket Production Facility in Huntington Beach, USA.

Key tasks will range from troubleshooting of detailed component defects for design improvement up to developing new designs for the Electron launch vehicle. You will work closely with test engineers and production engineers to ensure your designs can be tested to check performance, and that they can be produced for flight.

Responsibilities

• Develop design requirements and conceptual designs
• Perform preliminary analysis (structural and thermal)
• Responsible for creating and running design, test and production reviews on your designs
• Responsible for design records and documentation
• Identify work and support Analysis Team reviews
• Support the test and manufacturing teams in qualification testing and production of new designs
• Create detailed engineering drawings for production
• Peer review colleagues engineering designs and drawings
• Achieve “design freeze” target dates that fit into company schedules
• Ensure that your designs pass design qualification criteria and work with the testing team to achieve this
• Proactively identify opportunities for improvements or cost/efficiency reductions
• Re-actively troubleshoot and resolve performance, quality, cost and delivery issues
• Work with technicians and other engineers performing production to create simple and easy to interpret processes

Profile

• An engineering degree in Mechanical, Aerospace or an equivalent qualification
• 2+ years design engineering experience within industry
• Strong experience working Solidworks or equivalent CAD program
• Document management system experience
• Excellent knowledge of physics and engineering materials