Staff Materials & Process Engineer

Relativity Space•Long Beach, CA

4d•$150,000 - $226,000•Hybrid

About The Position

Relativity Space’s Awerx team builds agentic design tools for aerospace, combining agentic mechanical engineering with advanced manufacturing. Its goal is to help engineers create parts that are analyzable, buildable, qualifiable, and right the first time. The team works at the intersection of software and hardware, turning shop-floor knowledge into tools that shape how aerospace hardware is designed and built. The Staff Materials and Process Engineer brings metallurgical and manufacturing-process expertise into Awerx’s design-for-manufacturing systems. The role translates knowledge of metal solidification, deformation, cracking, and machining into design rules, models, and constraints that agents can use to design and plan aerospace hardware. The focus is hybrid manufacturing, including multi-additive routes and additive-plus-subtractive workflows such as directed energy deposition and CNC finishing. The engineer will help define how the tools reason about these process chains and build coupons and parts to validate their predictions. The role requires on-site presence at least three days per week, with flexibility to work remotely when the work allows. Much of the work is hands-on and is best done alongside the engineers and hardware it supports. The stated hiring range is $150,000–$226,000 USD. Relativity Space also offers competitive salary and equity, a generous PTO and sick leave policy, parental leave, and an annual learning and development stipend.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in Materials Science, Metallurgy, Mechanical Engineering, or a related field.
10+ years of materials and process engineering experience on aerospace or other high-reliability metal hardware.
Expertise in physical metallurgy across nickel superalloys, copper alloys, aluminum, and titanium, including solidification, phase transformations, heat treatment, and defect formation.
Hands-on experience developing or qualifying directed energy deposition processes (WAAM, laser DED, or electron-beam DED) and integrating them with CNC machining.
Experience designing and running test programs involving coupons, metallography, NDE, and mechanical testing, and generating statistically based design allowables (A- and B-basis) to NAVSEA, MMPDS, or comparable requirements.
Proficiency in Python or a similar language for data analysis and scripting.

Nice To Haves

PhD in Materials Science, Metallurgy, or a related field.
Experience with sintered-powder routes (binder jet, metal injection molding, press-and-sinter) or laser powder bed fusion, including multi-material or bimetallic interfaces such as copper-to-superalloy transitions.
Experience with ICME, CALPHAD, or thermo-mechanical process simulation for additive manufacturing, or with CAM and deposition path planning.
Experience qualifying additive parts for flight under NASA-STD-6030 or comparable standards, or applying machine learning to materials or process data.

Responsibilities

Encode metallurgy and process knowledge into Awerx DFM systems as design rules, process windows, material models, and manufacturability checks, including multi-additive builds, process interfaces, and deposition-to-machining handoffs.
Develop process guidance for directed energy deposition (including WAAM and other DED), CNC machining, and combined workflows, covering near-net-shape allowances, fixturing, distortion, and inspection access.
Characterize how process routes affect microstructure, residual stress, defects, and properties in nickel superalloys, copper alloys, aluminum, and titanium, and build materials and process datasets with clear provenance and uncertainty.
Plan and conduct hands-on validation programs in laboratory and shop environments, including coupons, test articles, heat treatment, NDE, metallography, and mechanical testing, to validate or correct tool predictions.
Lead materials and process qualification of hybrid-manufactured hardware, including qualification plans, process controls, and statistically based design allowables in line with NAVSEA requirements and MMPDS methodology.
Collaborate with software engineers, designers, production, materials, and quality teams, and outside suppliers to specify and review tool features, evaluate agent-generated designs and process plans, and translate shop knowledge and recurring failure modes into explicit constraints.