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Job Description

Overview

Rocket Lab is an end-to-end space company focused on building rockets, spacecraft, and subsystems for various missions. The Assembly Integration & Test Technician III role involves performing spacecraft assembly, integration, and test activities at their Long Beach, CA headquarters while ensuring high safety and quality standards.

Responsibilities

  • Assemble, integrate, and test spacecraft hardware according to engineering drawings and quality standards.
  • Install electrical and mechanical hardware including harnesses, avionics components, and other flight hardware.
  • Utilize electrical and mechanical assembly tools and measurement equipment safely and effectively.
  • Perform functional checks, continuity testing, and other production verification activities.
  • Support spacecraft functional testing and environmental test campaigns.
  • Assist in spacecraft propulsion integration activities including hardware installation and testing.
  • Support critical spacecraft lifts using overhead cranes and approved lifting fixtures.

Requirements

  • 5+ years of relevant manufacturing experience, preferably in aerospace.
  • Demonstrated technical leadership on complex spacecraft assembly and test campaigns.
  • Experience performing advanced mechanical rework including drilling and precision alignment.
  • Knowledge of spacecraft propulsion systems including pressure and leak testing.
  • Experience integrating spacecraft subsystems such as solar arrays and propulsion systems.
  • Ability to lead troubleshooting efforts across multiple engineering disciplines.
  • Ability to interpret engineering intent from drawings and work instructions.

Benefits

  • 401k
  • Health Insurance
  • Dental
  • Vision
  • PTO

Additional Information

  • Willing to work B Shift (Monday – Thursday 3:00pm - 1:30am)
  • Stand and walk for entire shift (8+ hours) on various work surfaces.
  • Climb ladders and work at elevated heights and in tight areas as needed.
  • Lift, carry, push, and pull materials and equipment up to 25 lbs.
  • Flexibility to work extended hours, weekends, and varied shifts as needed.

Benefits

401k
Health Insurance
Dental
Vision
PTO
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How this job compares in Long Beach, CA

Pay in context

At roughly $32/hr, this posting comes in about 27% below the $43/hr median for welding jobs in Long Beach, CA, where the middle half runs $30–$54/hr across 34 postings with published pay. Put another way, it pays more than about 29% of the comparable postings we have wage data for. That gap is worth raising directly — in a market this size there is normally room to negotiate toward the median, particularly if you already hold the certifications the posting asks for.

The local market in Long Beach, CA

We're tracking 43 other active welding openings in Long Beach, CA right now, from 17 different employers. 12 of them were added in the last week. Across California as a whole we're tracking 594 other active welding openings from 272 employers. A metro this active generally means you have real leverage — employers here are competing for the same welders. Browse every welding job in Long Beach, or widen the search to California.

Rocket Lab currently has 3 other openings live in California, which is usually a sign of either steady growth or steady turnover — worth asking which in the interview.

The most active employers in California at the moment, by number of open welding reqs, are SpaceX (37), Welding Shop in Los Angeles, CA (17), and Honeywell Aerospace (16). Volume like that usually means either a genuine expansion or a staffing agency working several client sites — worth knowing which before you apply.

Within California, the best-paying metros we track by median hourly rate are Pasadena at $51/hr, Santa Ana at $48/hr, and El Segundo at $48/hr. If you can relocate or commute, that spread is worth factoring in.

Similar openings near Long Beach, CA

Pay figures are medians computed from live postings in the Welding Pros index, not from survey data, and they move as employers post. Assembly Integration & Test Technician III figures were last recalculated when this page was built.