Manager, Vehicle Mechanisms

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 be successful in this role, you should be self-motivated, adaptable, and able to lead teams in a fast-paced environment. You will need strong interpersonal skills and the ability to communicate effectively with direct reports and leaders within and outside the organization. You will lead a team of responsible engineers developing the engine, stage separation, fairing separation, grid fin, and landing leg mechanisms. Ideally, you have significant mechanical or integrated design experience as well as a proven track record of organizing and completing collaborative projects effectively. Your advanced design, analysis, and manufacturing skills enable you to own the outcomes of key mechanism design trades and development our Terran R vehicle, as well as help you mentor other design engineers across the organization. Finally, you also have the ability to earn trust, maintain positive and professional relationships, and strengthen our culture of inclusion.

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

• Goal and priority setting for vehicle mechanisms on Terran R.
• Driving trade studies, manufacturing optimizations, and performance for mechanisms.
• Leading and developing the mechanisms team, including hiring for new roles and identifying growth areas to fill.
• Coordinating partner team developments in structures (separation and entry/descent/landing mechanisms) and propulsion (engine mechanisms).
• Working with test and avionics to accelerate hardware iterative development.
• Reviewing, releasing, and approving development and flight hardware drawings.
• Identifying build/test/design optimizations and working them to resolution.

About You:

• B.S. degree in engineering or related field
• 8+ years of experience in a full cycle design engineering role, including CAD, analysis, build and test
• 5+ years of relevant experience leading a hardware development team
• Experience with kinematic synthesis, pneumatic/hydraulic actuation, mechatronics, instrumentation, structures strength, stability and fatigue failure modes
• Experience with manufacturing processes, project management, scheduling/planning, materials, and surface treatments
• 5+ years of hands-on hardware build experience

Nice to haves but not required:

• Experience in structures and fluid systems for launch vehicle design, fabrication, and assembly techniques.
• Experience with design engineering tools such as NX, TeamCenter, ANSYS or FEMAP, as well as engineering scripting language such as Python or MATLAB
• Experience with ERP/MES Systems, product lifecycle management (PLM) and/or data management tools

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:$172,000—$195,000 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.