Senior Manager, Vehicle Fluids Analysis
Relativity Space · Long Beach, United States · 1mo ago
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 Stage Fluids team designs and delivers the propellant, pressurant, pneumatics, and other fluid systems that turn structures into functioning rockets. The team has full ownership across design, production, test, and flight, maintaining a holistic view of Terran R, focused not on isolated parts but integrated functionality. Working on-site at the factory means you’re never far from the hardware, enabling rapid iteration and tight feedback loops across design and manufacturing. You won’t just be handed requirements: you’ll be expected to ask the right questions, collaborate with partners across the company, and ultimately find the best solutions for Terran R.
About the Role:
- As the Sr Vehicle Fluids Analysis Manager, you will be responsible for a team of analysts providing essential technical guidance for hardware design and operations across fluid dynamics and thermal systems. You will apply deep expertise in internal flow and thermal analysis to guide component, systems, propulsion, operations, and guidance, navigation and control teams.
- You will:
- Manage a high-performing fluids analysis team aligned with program milestones
- Define, scope, and schedule required analyses to support program execution
- Ensure analysis fidelity is appropriate for each phase of development
- Oversee resource planning and analysis progression to meet program timelines
- Set clear team goals and drive accountability
- Perform thermal-fluid calculations to size and design compressible and incompressible systems using: Hand calculations, custom scripts and simple programs, network solvers & CFD models
- Develop and execute CFD analyses for complex vehicle problems, including but not limited to:
- Propellant management, dynamics, and thermal stratification
- Compressible flow within complex manifolds and components
- Multiphase flow within feedlines
- Validate and quantify uncertainty in analysis models using literature and test data
- Mature internal tools and methodologies for predicting fluids behavior across ascent, in-space, and reentry flight
- Mentor engineers and guide hardware owners to ensure systems meet fluid requirements
- To succeed in this role, you will bring a solid foundation in fundamental physics and the ability to apply first-principles thinking to complex problems. You are self-motivated, adaptable, and thrive in a fast-paced, highly integrated and collaborative vehicle development environment
- This role offers the opportunity to directly influence major engine and vehicle stage hardware while accelerating your professional growth in a culture that values collaboration, ownership, technical rigor, and calculated risk-taking
About You:
- Bachelor’s degree in engineering or related field and 10+ years of relevant experience across at least 1 aerospace vehicle program lifecycle
- 5+ years of experience leading high-performing engineering teams delivering successful hardware on complex, cross-functional projects
- Demonstrated mentoring and technical leadership skills
- Proficiency in Python or a similar programming language for scientific computing and automated test/simulation data analysis
- Experience performing 1D modeling of compressible and incompressible flow using hand calculations or fluid network analysis tools (e.g. GFSSP, FloCAD, or equivalent)
- Experience in architecting and executing industry-standard CFD tools (e.g., STAR-CCM+, Fluent, FLOW-3D, or equivalent) and workflows to inform hardware design
Nice to haves but not required:
- Experience building volume of fluid and/or internal compressible flow CFD models
- Experience developing simulation toolsets and workflows, e.g. for HPC
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.
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 accommodations@relativityspace.com.
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.