Staff Software Engineer, Storage Platform

InvestedintheMission; Long Beach (CA); On-site; USD 181,000 - 271,000; Full time

Job summary

Relativity Space is seeking a kernel/storage software engineer to own the storage platform stack for a space-based data center. You will design and implement custom Linux kernel drivers, manage OpenZFS pools, and ensure fault-tolerant data retention across radiation exposure.

You will collaborate across propulsion, manufacturing, software, and avionics teams to deliver a reliable, scalable storage solution from boot to deployment, with opportunities to prototype on commodity hardware and drive

Qualifications

• 5+ years writing Linux kernel code, with PCI/PCIe drivers and kernel-space work.
• Experience with storage systems: ZFS, RAID, NVMe internals, or high-throughput network storage (NFS).
• Expertise in filesystem internals, block layer, or storage protocol implementation.
• Strong OS internals knowledge: virtual memory, interrupt context constraints, synchronization primitives, and I/O stack behavior.

Responsibilities

• Own the complete storage platform software stack for a space-based data center: Linux kernel drivers, OpenZFS pool design, NFS data serving, and fault recovery.
• Design and implement custom Linux kernel drivers for NVMe fault recovery and GPIO overcurrent protection across PCI/PCIe subsystems.
• Lead ZFS pool topology decisions with quantitative reliability models balancing upset probability, resilver risk, and capacity.
• Develop integration between NVMe controller resets and ZFS for clean recovery of drives after faults.
• Prototype rapidly on commodity hardware from boot to sustained 10 Gbps writes with automated fault recovery.

Skills

Storage systems

Storage internals

OS internals

PCI/PCIe driver development

Tools

OpenZFS

NVMe

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. 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:

• Own the complete storage platform software stack for a space-based data center: custom Linux kernel drivers, OpenZFS pool design, NFS data serving, and automated fault recovery, shipping a platform that preserves up to a petabyte of mission data through years of radiation exposure
• Design and implement custom Linux kernel drivers for NVMe fault recovery and GPIO overcurrent protection, working across PCI/PCIe, block layer, and interrupt subsystems to detect and recover from radiation-induced upsets without data loss
• Lead the ZFS pool topology architectural decisions by building quantitative reliability models that balance upset probability, resilver risk, and capacity over a 6+ year mission, then validate through fault injection testing
• Develop the integration layer between NVMe controller reset and ZFS, ensuring that a drive recovering from a transient fault re-enters the storage pool cleanly, bridging driver-level recovery with filesystem-level fault tolerance
• Rapidly prototype on commodity hardware, from first boot through sustained 10 Gbps writes with automated fault recovery, de-risking the architecture before committing to the target platform, then carry the design through integration and launch

About You:

• 5+ years writing Linux kernel code, actual driver development involving PCI/PCIe devices, block storage, or interrupt-driven hardware, with meaningful time spent in kernel space
• Experience with storage systems: ZFS or other copy-on-write filesystems, RAID, NVMe internals, or high-throughput network storage (e.g., NFS)
• Depth in one or more: filesystem internals, block layer / device management, or storage protocol implementation
• Strong working knowledge of OS internals: virtual memory, interrupt context constraints, synchronization primitives, and I/O stack behavior

Nice to haves but not required:

• Hands-on experience at the driver hardware software boundary: DMA coherency, MMIO semantics, PCIe enumeration, and cache behavior
• Strong working knowledge of data structures and systems reasoning for storage (Merkle trees, NVMe submission/completion queue ring buffers, hash tables, radix trees)
• Experience testing storage systems, including fault injection (PCIe/NVMe resets, error storms), low-level tracing (ftrace/perf/bpftrace), and crash dump analysis (kdump/vmcore)
• Experience designing software recovery around storage hardware fault cases, whether that’s storage firmware, autonomous vehicle data systems, large-scale distributed infrastructure, or embedded platforms
• Familiarity with embedded Linux build systems (Yocto or Buildroot) and cross-compilation
• Hardware lab comfort: serial consoles, logic analyzers, and willingness to debug PCIe enumeration failures on a prototype board alongside the electrical engineers

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!

Hiring Range: $181,000 – $271,000 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].

Please note: Relativity Space does not accept unsolicited resumes, candidate profiles, or referrals from recruitment agencies or search firms. Any unsolicited submission - via email, our website, social media, or directly to an employee - will be deemed the property of Relativity Space, and no fee will be owed absent a current, fully executed agreement with Talent Acquisition that specifically authorizes submissions for the applicable role.