Staff Mechanisms Engineer

Company Overview:  

At Relativity Space, we have two audacious goals: to build the next great commercial launch company with Terran R and to become America's leading force in additive manufacturing innovation. Both contribute to our long-term vision of creating humanity’s industrial base on Mars, paving the way for interplanetary life to expand the possibilities of the human experience. This journey begins right here on Earth – where we design, build, and fly rockets to deliver customer payloads to orbit. Terran R, our medium-to-heavy lift reusable rocket, fulfills the growing demand for launch capacity, thanks to our iterative approach that accelerates design, testing, and development while minimizing costs. While our groundbreaking research and development in 3D printing pushes the boundaries of large-scale additive manufacturing.

Your journey with us is more than just a job – it’s an opportunity to shape the future of aerospace technology, additive manufacturing, and the human experience alongside a community of passionate, creative individuals. Join us on this extraordinary journey, as we work together to transform our vision into reality.

About the Team:  

The Structures team at Relativity is responsible for the design, analysis, testing, and manufacturing our launch vehicle integrated structures, as well as flight mechanisms. As a part of this team, you will be given hardware ownership for the full product lifecycle, and get the opportunity to conveniently validate your hardware through testing at our factory of the future, headquartered in Long Beach, CA. Unique to Relativity, you will get to work across many teams to develop world-class integrated launch vehicles. Overall, this team was critical to the launch success of Terran 1 and is now playing a key role in the development and execution of the Terran R program.

About the Role: 

To support our mission of changing the way rockets are built and flown, you will guide the design of Terran R mechanisms such as stage separation, payload deployment, aero control features and landing gear. To be successful, you will be working collaboratively with partner groups such as structures, avionics and fluids; and leverage our additive process and design freedom to design and build better products. The scope of work encompasses a full design cycle, including conceptualization, trade studies, design, analysis, manufacturing and testing of components.

Here are some examples of projects you could be working on:

• Design and test the Terran R stage separation or fairing deployment system
• Innovative conceptualization of the Terran R landing gear or aero surfaces actuation
• Definition of design criteria and subsystems requirements
• Review of static and dynamic load inputs, material properties & manufacturing process
• Conduct trade studies on different mechanism design concepts and present to leadership

Your mission will be to deliver on time and budget. You will be challenged to integrate as many subsystems within our printed primary structure, and support the development of our additive process to make this a reality. To achieve this, you will be working closely with our vehicle design, test and loads teams, as well as our additive and manufacturing teams.

In order to be successful in this role, you should be someone who is self-motivated, thrives in ambiguity, and is able to lead his or her own projects to completion. Ideally, you are someone who has come from a fast paced environment, having completed difficult projects with extreme ownership while collaborating effectively with other key groups.

About You:  

• Bachelors degree in engineering or related technical discipline
• 8+ years of experience in a full cycle design engineering role, including CAD, analysis, build and test
• Fundamental knowledge of kinematic synthesis, pneumatic/hydraulic actuation, mechatronics and instrumentation
• Fundamental knowledge of structures strength, stability and fatigue failure modes
• Basic knowledge of manufacturing processes, materials, and surface treatments
• Strong track record of technical problem solving and hands on hardware build experience
• Strong communication and interpersonal skills to lead discussions on complex technical topics

Nice to haves but not required:  

• 10+ years of aerospace experience or an advanced engineering degree
• Experience with launch vehicle mechanisms and multi-body dynamics analysis
• Experience in a demanding fast pace development environment
• Proficiency with design engineering tools such as NX, TeamCenter, Ansys or Femap, as well as engineering scripting language such as Python or MATLAB
• Hands-on experience with fabrication/prototyping such as machining, 3D printing, welding, woodworking

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