Senior Manufacturing Engineer, Stage Separation- Pneumatic Assembly

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 Manufacturing team at Relativity Space is currently deep in manufacturing trades and process development for Terran R, our next generation, reusable rocket. This team has a wide variety of responsibilities—from determining the most efficient factory floor layout, to developing and implementing complex tooling and processes, and even interfacing with the vehicle engineering team to heavily influence the design of the rocket. Unique to Relativity, you will get to work across many teams to iterate and support development of the vehicle program.

About the Role:

The Mechanisms Manufacturing team is responsible for working alongside the vehicle design and test teams to develop hardware that enables Terran R reusability, such as landing legs, pneumatic separation and release mechanisms, and linear and rotary electromechanical actuators. In this role, you will advocate for scalable manufacturing in product design trades and reviews, ensuring that manufacturing considerations are integrated early in the design process. You will develop build flow planning, large-scale part logistics, tooling design, conceptualizing & sourcing, analyze build & test data, work center capacity modelling and complex assembly work planning and execution. To be successful in this role, you need to be a self-starter that can thrive in ambiguity, identify problems and quickly resolve them, and provide definition to the previously undefined. You should have a commitment to quality and the discipline required to achieve it.

• Own a major mechanized subassembly and its child components from design release through test and successful integration onto the Terran R launch vehicle—lay out the build and test flow to ensure an efficient, high-quality product flow capable of scaling with time
• Drive the assembly’s build and test effort through design integration, part sourcing, assembly sequencing, mBOM development, build and test work order creation, and specification authoring
• Support workcenter development by considering assembly and test operations, safety, tooling and capital equipment requirements, and company operational goals
• Provide hands-on support to the shop floor and production personnel, promptly addressing any issues that arise and offering upstream feedback to drive design for manufacturability
• Analyze and disposition recurring manufacturing discrepancies and lead multi-disciplinary teams on root cause analysis and corrective actions
• Foster a culture of critical thinking and imaginative problem-solving, constantly challenging the established norms in engineering and manufacturing, and pushing the boundaries to achieve efficient production throughout workcenter. Mentor junior manufacturing engineers, providing guidance to support technical and professional development

About You:

• BS degree in aerospace, mechanical, or manufacturing engineering with 5+ years of experience building and testing hardware in a manufacturing environment
• Extensive experience authoring work instructions and/or test procedures to build and test interdisciplinary mechanical, electrical, and pneumatic assemblies
• Experience interfacing with design engineering, manufacturing, and production personnel
• Extensive experience leading, executing and managing large process and/or quality improvements with large scope of ownership
• Ability to work autonomously with little supervision in a fast-paced environment
• Expert in at least 2 of the following:
  • machining, precision drilling, mechanical fastening, and torqueing operations, pneumatic and/or electromechanical assembly, electrical and/or pneumatic functional checkouts, integrated testing, tooling design and fab, subassembly workcenter development

Nice to haves but not required:

• New product introduction of an aerospace hardware system into a manufacturing, test, and production system with proven success. Along with transitioning products from prototype to high volume production
• Working knowledge of rocket subsystems including structures, mechanisms, high pressure gas systems and/or avionics
• Expert understanding GD&T and drafting principles
• Experience in capacity analyses, DFMEA/PFMEA, value stream mapping

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:$130,000—$166,000 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.