Senior Robotics Automation and Controls Engineer

Relativity Space; Long Beach (CA); On-site; USD 124,000 - 186,000; Full time

Job summary

Relativity Space, Inc. is seeking a Senior Robotics Automation and Controls Engineer in Long Beach, CA.

You will lead the technical direction for automation across our manufacturing floor, integrating robotic systems from welding to inspection, and collaborating with cross-functional teams to deliver reliable, scalable control architectures. You’ll design and implement industrial safety systems, validate motion planning and synchronization for multi-robot setups, and contribute to the factory’s

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering, Mechatronics, Mechanical Engineering, Computer Engineering, or a related field
• 5+ years programming Fanuc, Kuka, ABB or similar robotics control systems with motion planning
• Industrial safety systems: risk assessments and safety PLCs
• Identify and mitigate risks in complex systems
• Electrical and pneumatics schematics and work instructions

Responsibilities

• Designing and leading robotics automation projects across manufacturing
• Collaborate with mechanical, electrical, and software engineers to deploy scalable automation
• Develop and validate safety and control architectures for multi-robot systems

Skills

Robotics control systems programming

Five plus years experience in robotics

Industrial safety systems design

Electrical schematics and pneumatics

Education

Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering, Mechatronics, Mechanical Engineering, Computer Engineering, or related field

Tools

SCADA software

Inductive Ignition

Job description

Senior Robotics Automation and Controls Engineer

Long Beach, California, United States

At Relativity Space, we’re building rockets to serve today’s needs and tomorrow’s breakthroughs. OurTerran R vehicle will deliver customer payloads to orbit, meeting the growing demand for launchcapacity. But that’s just the start. Achieving commercial success with Terran R will unlock newopportunities to advance science, exploration, and innovation, pioneering progress that reaches beyondthe 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. Nowis a unique moment in time where it’s early enough to leave your mark on the product, the process, andthe culture, but far enough along that Terran R is tangible and picking up momentum. The mostmeaningful work of your career is waiting. Join us.

About the Team:

The Factory Automation and Controls Engineering team sits at the intersection of design, manufacturing, and automation. We're a small team of hands-on engineers exploring the edge of what's possible, turning raw ideas into technologies that could reshape the future of aerospace and beyond. We build everything from deployable sensor packages to large-scale automated robotic systems that directly enable production of Terran R. As a design group embedded in the Tooling organization, we work closely with our internal partners to understand their root problems, propose solutions, and deliver hardware that helps Relativity build faster, scale smarter, and work better.

We're at the forefront of Relativity's growing factory automation efforts, which are increasingly critical to scaling Terran R production at our current and future facilities. You'll have the autonomy to make decisions, field solutions, and see your work in action on the factory floor. We're not just designing tools and automated processes. We're defining how our rockets get built.

About the Role:

As a Robotics Automation & Controls Engineer, you'll help lead the technical direction of a growing team that's expanding automation across our manufacturing organization. Your projects will touch every corner of the factory, from improving the robotic systems already running in production to designing and building permanent infrastructure from the ground up. You'll partner with mechanical, manufacturing, and design engineers to create solutions tailored to a wide range of applications and processes.

Projects you might work on include:

• Designing and implementing robotic systems for welding, fabrication, material handling, and component inspection.
• Supporting existing robotic systems through production simulation, offline programming, and deployment
• Architecting factory automation solutions that improve speed, quality, reliability, and efficiency across our manufacturing processes

About You:

• Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering, Mechatronics, Mechanical Engineering, Computer Engineering, or a related field
• 5+ years’ experience with programming Fanuc, Kuka, ABB or similar robotics control systems with motion planning, task allocation, and synchronization algorithms for multi-robot systems
• Demonstrated ability to design and implement industrial safety systems including risk assessments, job hazard analysis, and programming safety PLCs
• Demonstrated ability to identify and mitigate technical risks in complex systems
• Experience producing exceptional electrical and pneumatics schematics and work instructions

Nice to haves but not required:

• Working with factory SCADA and analytic software, such as Inductive Ignition or Grafana, to bring factory telemetry to your fingertips.
• Experience in writing PLC code; developing, activating, and troubleshooting PLCs (preferably Beckhoff, but Siemens and AB Rockwell is ok)
• Working with factory SCADA systems, such as Inductive Ignition, to bring factory telemetry to your fingertips.

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:

$124,000 - $186,000 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.