Principal Tooling Mechanical Engineer

Long Beach, California

At Relativity Space, we have two audacious goals: to build the next great commercial launch company with Terran R and to become America's leading force in additive manufacturing innovation. Both contribute to our long-term vision of creating humanity’s industrial base on Mars, paving the way for interplanetary life to expand the possibilities of the human experience. This journey begins right here on Earth – where we design, build, and fly rockets to deliver customer payloads to orbit. Terran R, our medium-to-heavy lift reusable rocket, fulfills the growing demand for launch capacity, thanks to our iterative approach that accelerates design, testing, and development while minimizing costs. While our groundbreaking research and development in 3D printing pushes the boundaries of large-scale additive manufacturing.

Your journey with us is more than just a job – it’s an opportunity to shape the future of aerospace technology, additive manufacturing, and the human experience alongside a community of passionate, creative individuals. Join us on this extraordinary journey, as we work together to transform our vision into reality.

About the Team:  

The Manufacturing team at Relativity Space is currently deep in manufacturing trades and process development for Terran R, our next generation rocket. This team has a wide variety of responsibilities—from determining the most efficient factory floor layout, to developing and implementing complex tooling and processes, and even interfacing with the vehicle engineering team to heavily influence the design of the rocket.

The Mechanical Engineers are responsible for the design and development of tools and equipment that support manufacturing. The Mechanical Engineering team brings a high level of innovation and ingenuity into the design process, as they are tasked with building out a highly-automated Production facility. 

About the Role: 

  • Develop high quality development and production tooling for the Terran vehicle and Aeon engine programs
  • Capable of integrating concepts and principles of mechanical design and analysis of several different projects in a fast-paced environment - projects will vary in size and scale
  • Ability to interpret and apply sound design and drafting standards (ASME Y14.5) in creating tooling drawing definitions
  • Handle a wide range of technical problems and familiar with all types of material handling, assembly fixtures, off-loaders, rotisseries, test fixtures, structural weldments, environmental chambers, and custom machines
  • Close collaboration with component designers, manufacturing engineers, and integration engineering to achieve the best possible cradle to grave metrics (safety, cost, quality, cycle time, delivery, reliability, life, and maintenance/refurbishment)
  • Manage projects including vendor selection, fabrication, inspection, equipment installation, and commissioning of tooling 

About You:  

  • Bachelor of Science degree in manufacturing engineering, mechanical engineering or equivalent
  • 14+ years of work or project experience with design, build, and commissioning of tooling and fixtures for manufacturing, assembly and test
  • Experience using CAD and FEA-based analysis software (NX and ANSYS Workbench preferred) for structural applications

Nice to haves but not required:  

  • Solid understanding of common manufacturing materials, GD&T, and tolerance/stack-up analysis 
  • Solid understanding of common manufacturing processes and machines including mills, lathes, welding, sheet-metal bending, lifting/rigging, assembly, inspection, etc. 
  • Experience with Siemens NX and Teamcenter PLM software
  • Experience with ANSYS Workbench, FEMAP Pre/Post processing, NASTRAN Solver, NX Advance Simulation, Mechanica, etc.

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:

$196,000 - $253,000 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.

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