About the position
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.
Responsibilities
- Drive the architecture, sizing, and development of thermal systems like insulation, heaters, thermal protection, and environmental conditioning in collaboration with peer technical teams
- Build, execute, and validate thermal analyses at the component, sub-system, and vehicle level, including relevant tool development and automation
- Direct design and development engineers in the successful application of thermal sciences to achieve system and component requirements
- Develop and execute tests to support thermal systems development and qualification, including hands-on work like test article integration, instrumentation setup, and data processing
- Support vehicle and engine thermal system development and stage testing as well as flight operations
Requirements
- Undergraduate degree in engineering or related field
- 5+ years experience in thermal analysis
- Proficiency in component and system level thermal and fluids analysis, using relevant toolsets like Sinda/Fluint/Thermal Desktop or other commercial FEM/FDM/FVM solvers
- Experience in an analysis role on an integrated vehicle program
- Hands-on experience with writing test plans and performing testing, instrumentation, and data analysis at the component and system level
- Experience solving complex problems on integrated vehicles with design teams
- Experience with an engineering scripting language like MATLAB or Python
Nice-to-haves
- Graduate degree in engineering or related field
- 8+ years experience in thermal analysis
- Familiarity with liquid rocket stage, engine architecture, and operations
- Understanding of aerodynamics and external flight related heating
- Experience with launch vehicle thermal protection system materials and thermal protection system sizing
- Experience with start to finish design cycles of multiple vehicles
Benefits
- Competitive salary and equity
- Generous PTO and sick leave policy
- Parental leave
- Annual learning and development stipend
