Senior Composite Structures Engineer

Reposted 5 Days Ago
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Long Beach, CA
Hybrid
142K-182K Annually
Senior level
Aerospace • Hardware • Robotics • Software • Manufacturing
We are building the future of aerospace.
The Role
The Senior Composite Structures Engineer will design, analyze, and support the manufacturing of aerospace composite structures, ensuring timely design reviews and operational efficiency while leading projects in a fast-paced environment.
Summary Generated by Built In

At Relativity Space, we’re building rockets to serve today’s needs and tomorrow’s breakthroughs. Our Terran R vehicle will deliver customer payloads to orbit, meeting the growing demand for launch capacity. But that’s just the start. Achieving commercial success with Terran R will unlock new opportunities to advance science, exploration, and innovation, pioneering progress that reaches beyond the known.

Joining Relativity means becoming part of something where autonomy, ownership, and impact exist at every level. Here, you're not just executing tasks; you're solving problems that haven’t been solved before, helping develop a rocket, a factory, and a business from the ground up. Whether you’re in propulsion, manufacturing, software, avionics, or a corporate function, you’ll collaborate across teams, shape decisions, and see your work come to life in record time. Relativity is a place where creativity and technical rigor go hand in hand, and your voice will help define the stories we’re writing together. Now is a unique moment in time where it’s early enough to leave your mark on the product, the process, and the culture, but far enough along that Terran R is tangible and picking up momentum. The most meaningful work of your career is waiting. Join us.

About the Team: 

The Structures and Mechanisms team is responsible for the full design, build, and test lifecycle of Terran R’s integrated structures and flight mechanisms. Whether you're working on highly iterative mechanisms that move or tight-margin structures that shouldn’t, you’ll get hands-on hardware ownership and see the rocket coming to life on the factory floor. Both teams fall under one department, sharing design principles, tools, and an integrated approach that provides a comprehensive view of Terran R. Team members work on multiple parts, not just within a single subsystem, and are empowered to make decisions that directly impact flight hardware. Beyond first flight, you’ll play a critical role in refining for manufacturability and speed.

About the Role:

The scope of work encompasses the full design cycle, including conceptualization, design, analysis, manufacturing and testing for primary and secondary composite structures on Terran R. You will need to think creatively and leverage innovation to reduce mass, parts, processes and tooling required.

Your responsibilities will include, but not be limited to the following:

  • Innovative conceptualization of structural load path, design for complex structures and adjacent system packaging
  • Review of static & dynamic load inputs, material properties & test as well as structural systems & subsystems requirements
  • Analysis and sizing of flight structures to ensure timely design reviews and drawing release
  • Develop and support hardware test campaigns, including test integration, operation and result evaluation
  • Support manufacturing process development

In order to be successful in this role, you must be someone who is self-motivated, adaptable and is able to lead your own projects to completion in a fast-paced environment. Ideally, you have significant mechanical or structural design experience and a proven track record completing collaborative projects effectively.

On a weekly basis, you will be designing flight components for our upcoming Terran R vehicle using NX/TeamCenter, performing analysis using Nastran, ANSYS and/or hand calculations, creating and releasing drawings as well as supporting fabrication of your components. You will own your design from requirements to production. You will also use your strong organizational skills to properly document your work and present your recommendations when decisions are needed.

About You:

  • 5+ years of experience in a design engineering role
  • 2+ years of experience in design, analysis, fabrication, and development of aerospace composite structures
  • Bachelor’s degree in Engineering or a related technical discipline
  • Experience with industry-standard CAD packages such as NX, Creo, or Solidworks
  • Working knowledge of structural analysis (hand calculations, finite elements methods, industry-standard tools) and test

Nice to haves but not required:  

  • Experience with composite manufacturing processes, including out-of-autoclave and autoclave cured structures
  • Working knowledge of composite structure inspection methods and repair processes
  • 5+ years of mechanical or structural design & analysis experience
  • Experience with NX/TeamCenter
  • Experience using Nastran and ANSYS
  • Experience with GD&T and drafting

At Relativity Space, we are committed to transparency and fairness in our compensation practices. Actual compensation will be determined based on experience, qualifications, and other job-related factors.
Compensation is only one part of our total rewards package. Relativity Space offers competitive salary and equity, a generous PTO and sick leave policy, parental leave, an annual learning and development stipend, and more! To see some of the benefits & perks we offer, please visit here.

Hiring Range:
$142,000$181,500 USD

We are an equal opportunity employer and value diversity at our company. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status.

Top Skills

Ansys
Creo
Gd&T
Nastran
Nx
Solidworks
Teamcenter

What the Team is Saying

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The Company
HQ: Long Beach, CA
1,300 Employees
Year Founded: 2016

What We Do

At Relativity Space, we’re building rockets to serve today’s needs and tomorrow’s breakthroughs. Our 
Terran R vehicle will deliver customer payloads to orbit, meeting the growing demand for launch 
capacity. But that’s just the start. Achieving commercial success with Terran R will unlock new 
opportunities to advance science, exploration, and innovation, pioneering progress that reaches beyond 
the known.
Joining Relativity means becoming part of something where autonomy, ownership, and impact exist at every level. Here, you're not just executing tasks; you're solving problems that haven’t been solved 
before, helping develop a rocket, a factory, and a business from the ground up. Whether you’re in 
propulsion, manufacturing, software, avionics, or a corporate function, you’ll collaborate across teams, 
shape decisions, and see your work come to life in record time. Relativity is a place where creativity and technical rigor go hand in hand, and your voice will help define the stories we’re writing together. Now  is a unique moment in time where it’s early enough to leave your mark on the product, the process, and the culture, but far enough along that Terran R is tangible and picking up momentum. The most meaningful work of your career is waiting. Join us.

Why Work With Us

We believe in a future where interplanetary life fundamentally expands the possibilities for the human experience. In realizing this, our long-term goal is to create humanity’s industrial base on Mars. The first step toward this long-term vision starts here on Earth – building rockets and pushing the boundaries of additive manufacturing.

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Relativity Space Teams

Team
Launching the Future of Humanity in Space
Team
Engineering
About our Teams

Relativity Space Offices

Hybrid Workspace

Employees engage in a combination of remote and on-site work.

Given the dynamic nature and diversity of roles at Relativity Space, there is no one-size-fits-all approach for how every team works best.

Typical time on-site: Flexible
HQLong Beach, CA
Cape Canaveral, FL
Center, MS
Kent, WA
Washington, DC
Learn more

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