Manager, Vehicle Mechanisms

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 Structures team at Relativity is responsible for the design, analysis, testing, and manufacturing our launch vehicle integrated structures, as well as flight mechanisms. As a part of this team, you will be given hardware ownership for the full product lifecycle,and get the opportunity to conveniently validate your hardware through testing at our factory of the future, headquartered in Long Beach, CA. Unique to Relativity, you will get to work across many teams to develop world-class integrated launch vehicles. Overall, this team was critical to the launch success of Terran 1 and is now playing a key role in the development and execution of the Terran R program.

About the Role: 

To be successful in this role, you should be self-motivated, adaptable, and able to lead teams in a fast-paced environment. You will need strong interpersonal skills and the ability to communicate effectively with direct reports and leaders within and outside the organization. You will lead a team of responsible engineers developing the engine, stage separation, fairing separation, grid fin, and landing leg mechanisms. Ideally, you have significant mechanical or integrated design experience as well as a proven track record of organizing and completing collaborative projects effectively. Your advanced design, analysis, and manufacturing skills enable you to own the outcomes of key mechanism design trades and development our Terran R vehicle, as well as help you mentor other design engineers across the organization. Finally, you also have the ability to earn trust, maintain positive and professional relationships, and strengthen our culture of inclusion. 

Your responsibilities will include, but not be limited to the following:

  • Goal and priority setting for vehicle mechanisms on Terran R.
  • Driving trade studies, manufacturing optimizations, and performance for mechanisms.
  • Leading and developing the mechanisms team, including hiring for new roles and identifying growth areas to fill.
  • Coordinating partner team developments in structures (separation and entry/descent/landing mechanisms) and propulsion (engine mechanisms).
  • Working with test and avionics to accelerate hardware iterative development.
  • Reviewing, releasing, and approving development and flight hardware drawings.
  • Identifying build/test/design optimizations and working them to resolution.

About You:

  • B.S. degree in engineering or related field
  • 8+ years of experience in a full cycle design engineering role, including CAD, analysis, build and test
  • 5+ years of relevant experience leading a hardware development team
  • Experience with kinematic synthesis, pneumatic/hydraulic actuation, mechatronics, instrumentation, structures strength, stability and fatigue failure modes
  • Experience with manufacturing processes, project management, scheduling/planning, materials, and surface treatments
  • 5+ years of hands-on hardware build experience

Nice to haves but not required:

  • Experience in structures and fluid systems for launch vehicle design, fabrication, and assembly techniques.
  • Experience with design engineering tools such as NX, TeamCenter, ANSYS or FEMAP, as well as engineering scripting language such as Python or MATLAB
  • Experience with ERP/MES Systems, product lifecycle management (PLM) and/or data management tools

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:

$172,000 - $195,000 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.

Apply for this job

*

indicates a required field

Resume/CV*

Accepted file types: pdf, doc, docx, txt, rtf

Cover Letter

Accepted file types: pdf, doc, docx, txt, rtf

How did you hear about us? *
Select...

As defined in the ITAR, “U.S. Persons” include U.S. citizens, lawful permanent residents (i.e., Green Card holders), and certain protected individuals (e.g., refugees/asylees, American Samoans). Please consult with a knowledgeable advisor if you are unsure whether you are a “U.S. Person.”

The person hired will have access to information and items controlled by the International Traffic in Arms Regulation (ITAR), and, therefore, must either be a “U.S. person” as defined by 22 C.F.R. § 120.15 or otherwise eligible for a federally issued export control license. To assist Relativity in assessing its export compliance obligations in relation to your application, please identify which statement best applies to you:

 

Voluntary Self-Identification

For government reporting purposes, we ask candidates to respond to the below self-identification survey. Completion of the form is entirely voluntary. Whatever your decision, it will not be considered in the hiring process or thereafter. Any information that you do provide will be recorded and maintained in a confidential file.

As set forth in Relativity Space’s Equal Employment Opportunity policy, we do not discriminate on the basis of any protected group status under any applicable law.

Select...
Select...
Race & Ethnicity Definitions

If you believe you belong to any of the categories of protected veterans listed below, please indicate by making the appropriate selection. As a government contractor subject to the Vietnam Era Veterans Readjustment Assistance Act (VEVRAA), we request this information in order to measure the effectiveness of the outreach and positive recruitment efforts we undertake pursuant to VEVRAA. Classification of protected categories is as follows:

A "disabled veteran" is one of the following: a veteran of the U.S. military, ground, naval or air service who is entitled to compensation (or who but for the receipt of military retired pay would be entitled to compensation) under laws administered by the Secretary of Veterans Affairs; or a person who was discharged or released from active duty because of a service-connected disability.

A "recently separated veteran" means any veteran during the three-year period beginning on the date of such veteran's discharge or release from active duty in the U.S. military, ground, naval, or air service.

An "active duty wartime or campaign badge veteran" means a veteran who served on active duty in the U.S. military, ground, naval or air service during a war, or in a campaign or expedition for which a campaign badge has been authorized under the laws administered by the Department of Defense.

An "Armed forces service medal veteran" means a veteran who, while serving on active duty in the U.S. military, ground, naval or air service, participated in a United States military operation for which an Armed Forces service medal was awarded pursuant to Executive Order 12985.

Select...

Voluntary Self-Identification of Disability

Form CC-305
Page 1 of 1
OMB Control Number 1250-0005
Expires 04/30/2026

Why are you being asked to complete this form?

We are a federal contractor or subcontractor. The law requires us to provide equal employment opportunity to qualified people with disabilities. We have a goal of having at least 7% of our workers as people with disabilities. The law says we must measure our progress towards this goal. To do this, we must ask applicants and employees if they have a disability or have ever had one. People can become disabled, so we need to ask this question at least every five years.

Completing this form is voluntary, and we hope that you will choose to do so. Your answer is confidential. No one who makes hiring decisions will see it. Your decision to complete the form and your answer will not harm you in any way. If you want to learn more about the law or this form, visit the U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) website at www.dol.gov/ofccp.

How do you know if you have a disability?

A disability is a condition that substantially limits one or more of your “major life activities.” If you have or have ever had such a condition, you are a person with a disability. Disabilities include, but are not limited to:

  • Alcohol or other substance use disorder (not currently using drugs illegally)
  • Autoimmune disorder, for example, lupus, fibromyalgia, rheumatoid arthritis, HIV/AIDS
  • Blind or low vision
  • Cancer (past or present)
  • Cardiovascular or heart disease
  • Celiac disease
  • Cerebral palsy
  • Deaf or serious difficulty hearing
  • Diabetes
  • Disfigurement, for example, disfigurement caused by burns, wounds, accidents, or congenital disorders
  • Epilepsy or other seizure disorder
  • Gastrointestinal disorders, for example, Crohn's Disease, irritable bowel syndrome
  • Intellectual or developmental disability
  • Mental health conditions, for example, depression, bipolar disorder, anxiety disorder, schizophrenia, PTSD
  • Missing limbs or partially missing limbs
  • Mobility impairment, benefiting from the use of a wheelchair, scooter, walker, leg brace(s) and/or other supports
  • Nervous system condition, for example, migraine headaches, Parkinson’s disease, multiple sclerosis (MS)
  • Neurodivergence, for example, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), autism spectrum disorder, dyslexia, dyspraxia, other learning disabilities
  • Partial or complete paralysis (any cause)
  • Pulmonary or respiratory conditions, for example, tuberculosis, asthma, emphysema
  • Short stature (dwarfism)
  • Traumatic brain injury
Select...

PUBLIC BURDEN STATEMENT: According to the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 no persons are required to respond to a collection of information unless such collection displays a valid OMB control number. This survey should take about 5 minutes to complete.