Vehicle Systems & Integrated Test Team- Staff Stage Development 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: 

  • Balance the technical, cost, and schedule constraints; weighing options, investigating scenarios, and proposing solutions
  • Interact, coordinate, and influence all aspects of the vehicle design. This includes: Hardware, Software, Structures, Avionics, Propulsion, Integration, Test Operations, Manufacturing, Shipping
  • Act as systems integration function by performing requirements decomposition, and developing vehicle, system, & unit level design verification activities
  • Develop and maintain the system & stage level Interface Control Documents
  • Balance the program risk posture through risk adjudication & mitigation planning activities
  • Own the stage through qualification, acceptance, and hotfire test campaigns by writing test objectives, test matrices, and test plans
  • Develop, manage, and execute operational plans and vehicle level CONOPs during test, hotfire, and launch campaign
  • Ability to travel to our test & launch sites and may additionally require shifted schedules or weekend work for critical milestones

About You:  

  • Bachelor’s degree in engineering or related field and 8+ years of relevant experience
  • Experience leveraging technical aptitude and basic understanding of all functional disciplines (Mechanical, Fluids, and & Electrical engineering)
  • Experience in design, manufacturing, assembly, and testing of complex aerospace systems
  • Leadership or coordination experience in a multidisciplinary engineering project and demonstrated ability to lead by influence and collaborate with technical owners
  • Experience leveraging strong problem-solving skills and a demonstrated ability to manage multiple priorities in a fast-paced environment

Nice to haves, but not required:  

  • Graduate degree in engineering or related field and 10+ years of relevant experience
  • Act with ownership, demonstrating a high level of responsibility over the resulting outcomes
  • Excellent communication skills with the ability to distill complex technical problems into simple concepts for a broader audience

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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