Vehicle Dynamics Engineer II

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:

Relativity’s Integrated Performance teams ensure that our products work across all systems and disciplines, from trajectory design to aerodynamics to reliability analysis and beyond. Our groups size the Terran R rocket, design its missions for customer success, reliability, and reusability, and ensure that every system on the rocket and ground is engineered correctly for the demanding environments of launch and entry. Recently, we completed the preliminary design and analysis of Terran R including Relativity’s first-ever work on launch vehicle reusability, spanning advanced trajectory simulations, wind tunnel testing, and structures analysis, among many other projects.

The Dynamics team works problems involving launch vehicle and ground system loads, vibration, shock, acoustics, and separation and landing simulations on the Terran R program. Contributions span vehicle, component, engine, test, and launch systems. We work collaboratively with other Flight Sciences teams and across Stage Engineering, Propulsion, Avionics, Test and Launch teams to develop tools, test levels, and loads on time and budget while meeting our technical requirements. A high degree of autonomy along with an ability to prioritize work in our fast-paced environment is required.

About the Role:

• Analyze vibration, shock, and acoustic data and models to generate or verify specification levels and component loads, and to develop insights into vehicle and engine dynamic behavior
• Architect and analyze Terran R dynamic systems like stage separation, payload fairing separation, and landing
• Build, execute, and validate Coupled Loads Analyses (CLA) at the stage and vehicle level, including relevant tool development and automation
• Proactively work with hardware Responsible Engineers (REs) to make sure your results are used consistently with analysis assumptions and to resolve dynamics issues across vehicle, ground, and test teams
• Develop and execute tests to support dynamic systems development and qualification, including hands-on work like test article integration, instrumentation setup, data processing, and model validation
• Support vibration and shock testing of components
• Work with partner teams in Flight Sciences to develop/ingest aerodynamic, acoustic, engine, and separation forcing functions

About You:

• Undergraduate degree in engineering or a related field
• 2+ years relevant experience
• Experience solving structural dynamics or vibration response problems
• Proficiency in Python, MATLAB, C++ or similar scripting language

Nice to Haves, but Not Required:

• Graduate degree in engineering or related field
• 5+ years relevant experience
• Hands-on experience with testing, instrumentation, and data analysis at the component and system levels
• Experience with high-speed instrumentation and signal processing related to vibration, shock, pressure
• Experience with vibration analysis software like Nastran, VA One, Wave6
• Experience with Coupled Loads Analysis (CLA), and/or Multi-Body Dynamics (MBD) analysis
• Familiarity with liquid rocket engines, launch vehicle structural and/or fluid systems, aircraft or rocket aerodynamics

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:$110,000—$140,000 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.