Staff Assembly, Integration & Test (AIT) Engineer

Relativity; Long Beach (CA); On-site; USD 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Job summary

Relativity Space is hiring a Staff Assembly, Integration & Test Engineer for the Interplanetary Sciences Program. The role focuses on owning integration workflows, leading test campaigns, and developing procedures for Mars orbiter hardware.

Based at Relativity Space HQ in Long Beach, CA, you will work hands-on with a cross-disciplinary team to ensure successful mission readiness. You will plan system-level tests, define acceptance criteria, and drive verification from component to launch,

Qualifications

• Bachelors degree in aerospace, mechanical, electrical engineering or related field.
• 7+ years of hands-on experience integrating and testing spacecraft or complex flight hardware.
• Experience leading spacecraft or payload integration and environmental test campaigns (thermal vacuum, vibration).
• Ability to write and execute test plans and procedures and assess test data.
• Strong hardware troubleshooting and decision-making under schedule pressure.
• Experience working across hardware, software, and systems teams to deliver flight systems.

Responsibilities

• Own the spacecraft integration flow and test campaigns from components to launch preparation.
• Develop integration procedures, test plans, acceptance criteria, and verification approaches.
• Plan and lead system-level thermal vacuum, vibration, EMI/EMC, and end-to-end tests.
• Design ground support equipment, tooling, and test setups for the campaign.
• Establish infrastructure for integration campaigns including cleanrooms and test assets.
• Lead test readiness reviews, execute tests, resolve discrepancies, and drive root cause solutions.
• Shape spacecraft design by identifying assembly, access, handling, and testability risks early.
• Maintain configuration, assembly, and verification records through delivery and launch.

Skills

Spacecraft integration

Test campaign leadership

Test planning

Hardware troubleshooting

Cross-team collaboration

Education

Bachelor's degree in aerospace/mechanical/electrical engineering

Tools

Ground test equipment

Job description

Relativity Space Overview

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. But that's just the start. 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. Now is a unique moment in time where it's early enough to leave your mark on the product, the process, and the culture, but far enough along that Terran R is tangible and picking up momentum. The most meaningful work of your career is waiting. Join us.

About the Team:

The Interplanetary Sciences Program was established to expand access to scientific exploration across our solar system. Its mission is to make planetary research faster, more affordable, and more capable than ever before by rethinking how science missions are designed, built, and operated. The program aims to enable scientists to send instruments to distant worlds without decades of development or prohibitive costs. By creating a sustainable model for interplanetary exploration, we are transforming space science from an occasional event into a continuous process of discovery that accelerates knowledge, broadens participation, and inspires the next generation of explorers.

About the Role:

Relativity Space's Interplanetary Sciences Program is developing a privately funded science mission to Mars targeted for 2028. This mission will map shallow subsurface ice and geology, characterize Martian weather, enable next generation onboard processing and communication, and demonstrate a new philanthropic public-private partnership model for space science.

We're hiring one Staff Assembly, Integration & Test (AI&T) Engineer to own the integration and test campaigns for the Mars orbiter. You'll define how the spacecraft and its payloads are assembled, verified, and prepared for launch, then lead that work hands-on with the engineering team. This is a full-time position based at Relativity Space HQ in Long Beach, California.

What you'll do:

• Own the spacecraft integration flow and test campaigns, from component and subsystem testing through vehicle-level environmental testing and launch preparation.
• Develop assembly and integration procedures, test plans, acceptance criteria, and verification approaches with systems and discipline leads.
• Plan and lead any system level thermal, vibration, EMI/EMC, functional, and end-to-end integrated spacecraft payload tests.
• Design the mechanical and electrical ground support equipment, tooling, and test setups needed for the campaign.
• Identify and establish the required infrastructure for the integration campaign, from test assets to cleanrooms.
• Lead test readiness reviews, execute tests, assess results, resolve discrepancies, and drive failures to root cause and closure.
• Shape the spacecraft design while it is still evolving by identifying assembly, access, handling, and testability risks early.
• Maintain clear hardware configuration, assembly and test records, and verification evidence through delivery and launch.

About You:

• Bachelor's degree in aerospace, mechanical, electrical, or a related engineering field
• 7+ years of hands-on experience integrating and testing spacecraft or similarly complex flight hardware
• Experience leading spacecraft or payload integration and environmental test campaigns, including thermal vacuum and vibration testing
• Ability to write and execute test plans and procedures, assess test data, and close verification requirements
• Strong hardware troubleshooting skills and the judgment to make sound technical decisions under schedule pressure
• Experience working across hardware, software, and systems engineering teams to take a flight system from development through delivery

Nice to haves, but not required:

• Spacecraft-level AI&T ownership on a deep-space or other one-of-a-kind mission
• Optical communications, precision pointing, or other tightly coupled payload integration
• Electrical ground support equipment, automated test systems, and hardware-in-the-loop testing
• Cleanroom operations, ESD controls, and flight hardware handling
• Launch site integration or launch campaign support

At Relativity Space, we are committed to transparency and fairness in our compensation practices. Ac