Senior Vehicle Structures Engineer

Relativity Space; Long Beach (CA); On-site; USD 132,000 - 198,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Generous PTO and sick leave policy

Parental leave

Annual learning and development stipend

Job summary

Relativity Space in Long Beach, California, is on the hunt for a skilled Design Engineer to work on the Terran R vehicle's integrated ground-up design. You'll be responsible for creating innovative structural components and testing campaigns, requiring expertise in CAD software like NX. This role emphasizes hands-on hardware ownership in a collaborative environment.

The ideal candidate will have over 5 years of engineering experience and a solid background in mechanical and structural design. Offered compensation ranges from $132,000 to $198,000, alongside various employee benefits.

Qualifications

• 5+ years of experience in a design engineering role.
• Experience with industry-standard CAD packages such as NX, Creo, or Solidworks.
• Strong knowledge of structural analysis techniques and tools.

Responsibilities

• Designing flight components for the Terran R vehicle.
• Reviewing loads, material properties, and structural requirements.
• Supporting hardware test campaigns and manufacturing process development.

Skills

Mechanical design experience

Structural analysis

Project leadership

CAD software proficiency

Education

Bachelor’s degree in Engineering

Tools

NX

Nastran

ANSYS

Job description

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. 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.

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

The scope of work encompasses a full design cycle, including conceptualization, design, analysis, manufacturing and testing for primary and secondary structures related to Thrust Structure, Propellant Tanks, Interstage or Fairing, to name a few. You will need to think creatively and leverage innovation to reduce mass, parts, processes and tooling required.

Your responsibilities

• Innovative conceptualization of structural load path, design for complex structures and adjacent system packaging
• Review of static and dynamic load inputs, material properties and test as well as structural systems and subsystems requirements
• Analysis and sizing of flight structures to ensure timely design reviews and drawing release
• Develop and support hardware test campaigns, including test integration, operation and result evaluation
• Support manufacturing process development

On a weekly basis, you will be designing flight components for our upcoming Terran R vehicle using NX/TeamCenter, performing analysis using Nastran, ANSYS and/or hand calculations, creating and releasing drawings as well as supporting fabrication of your components. You will own your design from requirements to production. You will also use your strong organizational skills to properly document your work and present your recommendations when decisions are needed.

In order to be successful in this role, you must be someone who is self‑motivated, adaptable and is able to lead your own projects to completion in a fast‑paced environment. Ideally, you have significant mechanical or structural design experience and a proven track record completing collaborative projects effectively.

About You

• 5+ years of experience in a design engineering role
• Bachelor’s degree in Engineering or related technical discipline
• Experience with industry‑standard CAD packages such as NX, Creo, or Solidworks
• Working knowledge of structural analysis (hand calculation, finite element methods and industry tools) and test
• 1+ years of experience working on structures strengths

Nice to Haves

• 5+ years of mechanical or structural design and analysis experience
• Experience with NX/TeamCenter
• Experience using Nastran and ANSYS
• Experience with GD&T and drafting

Benefits and Compensation

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 and perks we offer, please visit here.

Hiring Range: $132,000 - $198,000 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.

If you need a reasonable accommodation, please contact us at [e-mail].