Staff Structures Engineer Long Beach, California

Relativity; Long Beach (CA); On-site; USD 164,000 - 225,500; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Generous PTO and sick leave

Parental leave

Annual learning and development stipend

Job summary

An aerospace company in Long Beach is seeking a Staff Structures Engineer to manage the design and development of spacecraft structures. You will handle everything from concept to flight, focusing on ensuring structural integrity and system-level integration. The ideal candidate will have at least 6 years of experience, a degree in Aerospace Engineering or a related field, and proficiency in CAD and structural analysis tools. A competitive salary and benefits package are offered.

Qualifications

• 6+ years of experience designing and delivering aerospace structures.
• Experience with metallic structural design, GD&T, drawing creation, and testing.
• Demonstrated ability to take structural systems from concept through qualification.

Responsibilities

• Lead design and development of spacecraft structures.
• Perform structural and dynamic analysis to validate designs.
• Produce engineering drawings for manufacturing.

Skills

Aerospace Engineering

Mechanical Engineering

Structural Analysis

CAD proficiency

Hands-on Design Experience

Communication Skills

Education

Bachelor's or Master's degree in Aerospace Engineering or related field

Tools

Finite Element Analysis (FEA)

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.

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 into a continuous process of discovery that accelerates knowledge, broadens participation, and inspires the next generation of explorers.

About the Role

As a Staff Structures Engineer within the Interplanetary Sciences Program at Relativity Space, you will own the design, development, analysis, build, and verification of primary and secondary spacecraft structures, from concept through flight. You will be directly responsible for delivering flight‑ready hardware that meets mission performance, reliability, and cost objectives.

This position requires a highly motivated, hands‑on engineer who thrives in ambiguity, can execute with autonomy, and is eager to take on end‑to‑end ownership, from early architecture and trade studies to prototype testing to final flight qualification.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities

• Lead the design, analysis, and development of spacecraft structures from concept through flight.
• Perform structural and dynamic analysis (FEA, hand calculations, margins, etc.) to validate designs across all mission phases.
• Produce engineering drawings with required specifications for manufacturing.
• Collaborate with all subsystems to ensure structural integrity and system‑level integration.
• Manage fabrication and assembly of structural components, including supplier coordination, material procurement, and flight hardware acceptance testing.
• Design and execute environmental testing, load testing, and flight verification campaigns.

About You

• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Aerospace Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, or a related technical field.
• 6+ years of experience designing, analyzing, and delivering aerospace primary or secondary structures.
• Demonstrated ability to take structural systems from blank‑sheet concept through qualification and flight.
• Proficiency in CAD and structural analysis tools.
• Hands‑on experience with metallic structural design, GD&T, drawing creation, integration, and testing.
• Strong communication skills and demonstrated success working cross‑functionally in fast‑paced environments.

Nice to Have

• Direct technical experience with interplanetary spacecraft design.
• Familiarity with NASA or other spaceflight structural design and verification standards.
• Experience with spaceflight hardware environmental testing and qualification.

Compensation

Hiring Range: $164,000 - $225,500 USD.

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 our website.

Equal Opportunity Employer

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.