Vehicle Hardware Test Engineer II (Fluids)

Relativity Space • Long Beach, CA

1d • Onsite

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 Stage Fluids team is responsible for the design and delivery of the propellant, pressurant, pneumatics, and other fluid systems that turn structures into functioning rockets! The team has full ownership across design, production, test, and flight, maintaining a holistic view of Terran R, focused not on isolated parts but integrated functionality. Working on-site at the factory means you’re never far from the hardware, enabling rapid iteration and tight feedback loops across design, test and manufacturing. You won’t just be handed requirements: you’ll be expected to ask the right questions, collaborate with partners across the company, and ultimately find the best solutions for Terran R. About the Role: In this role, you will support the development and qualification of fluid system hardware for the TerranR launch vehicle. You will help translate design requirements into effective test strategies while iterating on hardware designs based on test results. Your work will ensure fluid system components are robust, well-understood, and ready for integration into the broader vehicle architecture

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in mechanical or an equivalent engineering discipline
• 2+ years of fluid systems and fluid system architecture
• Experience developing and executing aerospace qualification test programs (e.g., SMC-S-016 or similar specifications)
• Experience designing or operating with fluid system components such as fittings, seals, valves, regulators, and associated system testing
• Familiarity with FEA tools for evaluating structural margins
• To succeed in this role, you will bring a solid foundation in fundamental physics and the ability to apply first-principles thinking to complex problems. You are self-motivated, adaptable, and thrive in a fast-paced, highly collaborative vehicle development environment

Nice To Haves

• Experience in a fast-paced start-up and/or launch vehicle environment

Responsibilities

• Iterate on hardware designs and supporting analysis based on learnings found in testing
• Design mechanical test fixtures to support component and system-level hardware testing
• Translate hardware designs, industry test standards, system requirements, and design criteria into actionable qualification and development test campaigns
• Accelerate the team’s ability to test hardware by clarifying test processes, capabilities, and limitations, and by developing creative solutions to testing challenges
• Support the execution, troubleshooting, and interpretation of hardware test campaigns

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Mid Level