Vehicle Structures Engineer II

Relativity Space•Long Beach, CA

1d•$104,000 - $156,000

About The Position

Relativity Space is building rockets to serve today’s needs and tomorrow’s breakthroughs, with their Terran R vehicle designed to deliver customer payloads to orbit and meet the growing demand for launch capacity. This role is within the Structures and Mechanisms team, responsible for the full design, build, and test lifecycle of Terran R’s integrated structures and flight mechanisms. The position involves hands-on hardware ownership and seeing the rocket come to life on the factory floor. Team members work on multiple parts, not just within a single subsystem, and are empowered to make decisions that directly impact flight hardware. Beyond first flight, the role will play a critical part in refining for manufacturability and speed. The Vehicle Structures Engineer II will be responsible for bringing critical flight structures and supporting components from design concept to physical hardware ready to launch. The scope includes conceptualization, design, analysis, manufacturing, and testing for primary and secondary structures related to Thrust Structure, Propellant Tanks, Interstage, or Fairing. The mission is to deliver these projects on time and budget, working closely with additive, design, test, and loads & dynamics teams. Success in this role requires self-motivation, thriving in ambiguity, and the ability to lead projects to completion, ideally with experience in a fast-paced aerospace environment. Weekly tasks include designing flight or ground components using NX/TeamCenter, performing analysis using Nastran, ANSYS, and/or hand calculations, creating and releasing drawings, and supporting fabrication. Designs will be optimized for additive manufacturing methods, requiring fundamental knowledge in this area. Strong organizational skills are needed for documentation and decision-making.

Requirements

2+ years of experience in a full cycle design engineering role
Bachelor's degree in engineering or related technical discipline
Demonstrated knowledge of structural analysis and test (from hand calculations to advanced analysis)
Demonstrated knowledge of structures strength, stability and fatigue failure mechanisms
Demonstrated knowledge of additive and traditional manufacturing processes

Nice To Haves

3+ years of aerospace experience
An advanced engineering degree
Experience with NX/TeamCenter
Experience using Nastran and ANSYS

Responsibilities

Conceptualization of structural load path, design for complex structures and adjacent system packaging
Review of static & dynamic load inputs, material properties & test as well as structural systems & subsystems requirements
Analysis and sizing of flight structures to ensure timely design reviews and drawing release
Develop and support hardware test campaigns, including test integration, operation and result evaluation
Support manufacturing process development, including tools or fixtures design or analysis
Deliver projects on time and budget
Design flight or ground components using NX/TeamCenter
Perform analysis using Nastran, ANSYS and/or hand calculations
Create and release drawings
Support fabrication of components
Optimize designs for additive manufacturing methods
Document work and move forward recommendations when decisions are needed