Vehicle Systems & Integrated Test Team- Staff Systems Engineer

Long Beach, California

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 Vehicle Systems Engineering and Integrated Test team at Relativity is a cross-functional group tasked with ownership of Stage 1 and Stage 2 of the Terran R rocket and the integration of various subsystems into those stages, while also ensuring that the processes themselves are as efficient as possible. This team is the engineering focal point throughout the vehicle’s lifecycle, considering and managing the upstream and downstream impacts of various changes, driving vehicle architecture trades, tackling tough integration problems, defining Concepts of Operations, coordinating and executing vehicle level tests/launch, and striving to strike the balance between performance, launch/build rate, and reliability. Beyond vehicle development itself, they strive to amplify the ability of responsible engineers to design the best possible product. Just as they are the focal point for the broader engineering changes of the vehicle, they also strive to ensure strong collaboration of teams, that the truth is centralized, work is visible, and that tools and process are streamlined.

About the Role: 

As a Staff Systems Engineer, you will collaborate with team members across the organization while contributing to the development of Relativity’s engineering processes and tools to enable the design, development, certification, and flight of the Terran R launch system.

Projects and responsibilities include the following:

  • Develop the Systems Engineering tools and methodology roadmap, helping align the needs of various disciplines and the overall project from development to launch
  • Build, continuously improve, or eliminate engineering processes to support an efficient, product-focused culture
  • Prototype, implement, and rollout processes, tools, and automation that enable better design and test collaboration across the company
  • Manage the vehicle design and development processes from beginning to end, ranging from working with department leaders on setting expectations, making progress visible, and ensuring the processes are effective
  • Provide engineering expertise to solve technical problems at all levels.

As a Staff level Systems Engineer, you will be expected to perform the above responsibilities autonomously, requiring little oversite.

To be successful in this role, you should be self-motivated, adaptable, and able to contribute significantly to a fast-paced integrated vehicle program. You should also be able to resolve ambiguity and drive projects to completion. Ideally, you have experience in: Systems Engineering, Verification and Validation (V&V), and Requirement Management experience, Vehicle Configuration Management, Launch Vehicle certification as well as a proven track record completing projects successfully in a highly collaborative environment.

On a weekly basis, you will be developing processes and tools, supporting design teams, and working collaboratively with IT and DevOps. You will also use your strong organizational skills to properly manage the documentation and communication of your actions, recommendations, and decisions.

About You: 

  • Staff: An undergraduate degree in engineering or related field and 10+ years relevant experience
  • Experience performing cross-functional engineering and integration for complex systems
  • Experience solving difficult problems with multiple stakeholders in a fast-paced environment
  • Proven track record of contributing to project completion
  • Experience workflows and automation within Jira or equivalent 
  • Experience writing automation scripts in Python or other languages
  • Experience applying expertise in modern systems engineering practices and tools
  • Experience applying written and oral communication skills

Nice to haves, but not required:

  • Graduate degree (MS/PhD) in engineering or related field and 10+ years of experience
  • Hands-on experience in the design, integration, test, and operation of complex systems
  • History of taking complex products from concept to production
  • Strong desire to learn new subjects to solve difficult and often ambiguous challenges
  • Experience with Model Based Systems Engineering (MBSE)

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.

Hiring Range:

$176,000 - $225,500 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.

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