Staff Structures Engineer
Relativity Space · Long Beach, United States · 6mo 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 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:
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 calcs, 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 haves but not required:
- Direct technical experience with interplanetary spacecraft design
- Experience designing avionics enclosures
- Familiarity with NASA or other spaceflight structural design and verification standards
- Experience with spaceflight hardware environmental testing and qualification
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.