Senior Mechanical Engineer
Relativity Space
Senior Mechanical Engineer
Relativity Space
Develops 3D-printed reusable rockets for launches
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:
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:
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:
Nice to haves but not required:
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.
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.
If you need a reasonable accommodation, please contact us at [email protected].
Please note: Relativity Space does not accept unsolicited resumes, candidate profiles, or referrals from recruitment agencies or search firms. Any unsolicited submission - via email, our website, social media, or directly to an employee - will be deemed the property of Relativity Space, and no fee will be owed absent a current, fully executed agreement with Talent Acquisition that specifically authorizes submissions for the applicable role.
Hiring Range: 132000 - 198000 USD
Develops 3D-printed reusable rockets for launches
Relativity Space designs and launches rockets that are largely built with 3D-printed parts. Its core product line includes the Terran R, a medium-to-heavy lift rocket designed to be reusable and capable of delivering payloads to LEO and GTO. The company works by using advanced additive manufacturing to print most rocket structures and components in-house, reducing parts, complexity, and production time, and then offers launch services to customers who want to put satellites or other payloads into space. Unlike many peers, Relativity Space relies on a predominantly 3D-printed, vertically integrated approach with its own proprietary designs and manufacturing processes, aiming to streamline production and cut costs. The goal is to make access to space cheaper and more reliable by building a scalable, in-house manufacturing platform and a reusable rocket fleet that can deploy payloads on demand.
Explore more opportunities at Relativity Space