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Vehicle Structures Design Engineer II

10/27/2025

You will be responsible for the full design cycle, including conceptualization, design, analysis, manufacturing, and testing of primary and secondary structures. This includes innovative conceptualization of structural load paths and supporting hardware test campaigns.

Salary

112000 - 143000 USD

Working Hours

40 hours/week

Company Size

1,001-5,000 employees

Language

English

Visa Sponsorship

About The Company

Relativity Space is on a mission to make access to space more reliable and routine. Our medium-to-heavy lift reusable rocket, Terran R, 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.

About the Role

<div class="content-intro">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.</div>About the Team:   The Structures team at Relativity is responsible for the design, analysis, testing, and manufacturing our launch vehicle integrated structures, as well as flight mechanisms. As a part of this team, you will be given hardware ownership for the full product lifecycle, and get the opportunity to conveniently validate your hardware through testing at our factory of the future, headquartered in Long Beach, CA. Unique to Relativity, you will get to work across many teams to leverage Relativity's first-of-its-kind 3D printing technology to develop world-class integrated launch vehicles. Overall, this team is critical to the launch success of Terran 1 & Terran R, among many other firsts!  About the Role:  The scope of work encompasses a full design cycle, including conceptualization, design, analysis, manufacturing and testing for primary and secondary structures related to Thrust Structure, Propellant Tanks, Interstage or Fairing, to name a few. You will need to think creatively and leverage innovation to reduce mass, parts, processes and tooling required. Your responsibilities will include, but not be limited to the following: <ul> <li style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Innovative conceptualization of structural load path, design for complex structures and adjacent system packaging</li> <li style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Review of static & dynamic load inputs, material properties & test as well as structural systems & subsystems requirements</li> <li style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Analysis and sizing of flight structures to ensure timely design reviews and drawing release</li> <li style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Develop and support hardware test campaigns, including test integration, operation and result evaluation</li> <li style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Support manufacturing process development</li> </ul> In order to be successful in this role, you must be someone who is self-motivated, adaptable and is able to lead your own projects to completion in a fast-paced environment. Ideally, you have significant mechanical or structural design experience and a proven track record completing collaborative projects effectively. On a weekly basis, you will be designing flight components for our upcoming Terran R vehicle using NX/TeamCenter, performing analysis using Nastran, ANSYS and/or hand calculations, creating and releasing drawings as well as supporting fabrication of your components. You will own your design from requirements to production. You will also use your strong organizational skills to properly document your work and present your recommendations when decisions are needed. About You:   <ul> <li style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">2+ years of experience in a design engineering role</li> <li style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Bachelor’s degree in engineering or related discipline</li> <li style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Experience with industry-standard CAD packages such as NX, Creo, or Solidworks</li> <li style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Working knowledge of structural analysis (hand calculation, Finite Elements Methods and industry tools) and test</li> <li style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Fundamental knowledge of structures strength, stability and fatigue failure mechanisms</li> </ul> Nice to haves but not required:   <ul> <li style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">3+ years of mechanical or structural design & analysis experience</li> <li style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Experience with NX/TeamCenter</li> <li style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Experience using Nastran and ANSYS</li> <li style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Experience with GD&T and drafting</li> </ul>    <div class="content-pay-transparency"><div class="pay-input"><div class="description">At Relativity Space, we are committed to transparency and fairness in our compensation practices. Actual compensation will be determined based on experience, qualifications, and other job-related factors. Compensation is only one part of our total rewards package. Relativity Space offers competitive salary and equity, a generous PTO and sick leave policy, parental leave, an annual learning and development stipend, and more! To see some of the benefits & perks we offer, please visit <a href="https://px.sequoia.com/relativityspace">here.</a></div><div class="title">Hiring Range:</div><div class="pay-range">$112,000—$143,000 USD</div></div></div><div class="content-conclusion">We are an equal opportunity employer and value diversity at our company. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status. If you need a reasonable accommodation, please contact us at <a href="mailto:accommodations@relativityspace.com">accommodations@relativityspace.com</a>.  </div>

Key Skills

Design EngineeringStructural AnalysisCADNXCreoSolidworksFinite Element MethodsNastranANSYSGD&TMechanical DesignProject ManagementProblem SolvingCreativityDocumentationCollaboration