Senior Robotics Software Engineer

Relativity Space•Long Beach, CA

6d•$146,000 - $218,000

About The Position

Relativity Space is building rockets to serve today’s needs and tomorrow’s breakthroughs. Their Terran R vehicle will deliver customer payloads to orbit, meeting the growing demand for launch capacity. Joining Relativity means becoming part of something where autonomy, ownership, and impact exist at every level. This role is within the Horizon Manufacturing Technologies business unit, which is advancing next-generation manufacturing for aerospace and beyond. The Robotics Team operates at the frontier of manufacturing innovation, where cutting-edge R&D is put into production. As a member of the Horizon’s Robotics Team, you’ll work alongside welders, data scientists, and material scientists, creating an end-to-end additive manufacturing platform that serves a wide variety of applications. The specific role is for a Robotics Kinematics Engineer who will develop and own a crucial backbone for the software infrastructure related to kinematics and calibration. This role is ideal for a software engineer who thrives in cross-functional environments, enjoys owning full projects from design to deployment, and is comfortable navigating ambiguity in a fast-moving R&D setting.

Requirements

BS required; MS preferred in Robotics Engineering, Control Systems Engineering, Computer Science, or a related technical field.
5+ years of experience developing kinematics algorithms for both underactuated and redundant robotic systems.
Strong expertise in robot kinematic modeling and calibration methodologies using industrial metrology and localization hardware (Leica, OptiTrack, etc)
High proficiency in C++, Linux, and modern software engineering practices; comfortable developing in Python.
Experience designing modular, extensible software architectures that support diverse robot kinematics and configurations.
Experience with ROS and open-source robotics libraries.

Nice To Haves

Experience with multi-robot coordination and synchronization.
Experience with mobile manipulators.
Experience developing software for real-time robotic systems.
PhD in Robotics, Control Systems, or a related technical field.

Responsibilities

Develop advanced kinematics algorithms for robotic systems (6+ DoF), including forward/inverse kinematics and redundancy resolution, optimized for real-time performance.
Own and maintain the kinematics library shared across multiple robotics software products.
Develop and maintain calibration tools and methodologies supporting a wide range of robot calibration workflows.
Serve as the Subject Matter Expert (SME) for robot kinematics, motion modeling, and multi-axis synchronization.