Senior Stage Development Engineer

Relativity Space • Long Beach, CA

7d

About The Position

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 Systems Engineering team ensures that Terran R comes together as a cohesive, high-performing, and scalable system. Within the department, one team focuses on building tools and processes to manage requirements, track decisions, and identify and mitigate risk - enabling faster, more informed development across the program. Engineers work across domains to understand complex problems, identify solutions, and implement them – all with deep technical knowledge, not just documentation. The other team focuses on the vehicle itself, working across teams to ensure all subsystems of Terran R function together as intended, burning down technical risk, and driving informed decisions at every stage of the vehicle lifecycle. Engineers are empowered to lead high-impact efforts, from major test campaigns to console operations during launch, and are trusted to drive improvements across fluids, structures, avionics, and more. Regardless of which team you’re on, you’ll be part of a high-visibility, high-impact department at a pivotal moment in the program, where decisions made today on trades, architecture, and process will shape not just the first launch, but the long-term trajectory of Relativity. 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:

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in engineering or related field and 5+ 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

• Graduate degree in engineering or related field and 8+ 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

Responsibilities

• 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

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Senior
• Number of Employees: 1,001-5,000 employees