Senior Turbomachinery Development Engineer

Company Overview:  

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.

About the Team   

Relativity seeks a highly talented Turbomachinery Engineer to join a rapidly growing space startup. The Turbomachinery team is responsible for designing, manufacturing, and testing the fuel and oxidizer turbopumps for the Aeon-R engine. This position will provide outstanding technical contribution to the development of the Terran R launch vehicle, as well as helping to build a world-class turbomachinery team. A high degree of autonomy and initiative is required.

About the Role 

As a Turbomachinery Engineer, you will develop the assemblies for the fuel and oxidizer turbopumps of the Aeon-R and Aeon-RVac engines. You will oversee development testing of our turbomachinery products and be responsible for developing test plans and executing test campaigns in coordination with propulsion’s engine systems and test teams. You will own the exploratory operation of new and existing test article designs, diving deep into the evaluation of test hardware behavior in support of continuous turbomachinery development and certification. You will collaborate closely with the turbomachinery design and manufacturing teams to incorporate improvements into future designs. In order to be successful in this role, you should be someone who thrives in ambiguity and is able to drive their own projects to completion. You must have the passion, tenacity and resolve to work through challenging issues unique to rocket turbopumps. We are looking for someone multifaceted, and capable of working at the interfaces of design, development, and analysis of turbomachinery.

In order to be successful in this role, you should be capable of leading collaborative projects to completion with minimal oversight. You should also be a self-starter who is always looking for ways to improve yourself & learn more about the systems that interface with yours. Along with these high expectations comes the opportunity to have a significant influence on a fast-growing startup company and to make rapid professional gains in an environment that encourages growth and risk.

This role requires travel to our test & launch sites.

About you

In order to be successful in this role, you should have the following:

• Experience applying engineering fundamentals in fluid mechanics & thermodynamics
• Experience with test operations environments
• Experience with ownership, problem-solving skills, professional collaboration, and providing mentorship
• Experience delivering on ambitious schedules, especially if unconventional solutions are necessary to do so
• Bachelor’s degree in a science, engineering, technology, or mathematics field
• 5+ years relevant experience, preferably in a complex engineering system development and/or test environment

Nice to haves but not required:  

• Direct experience with turbomachinery testing
• Knowledge of turbomachinery design and analysis practices
• Experience performing turbomachinery analyses (bladed CFD, structural, modal, rotordynamics)
• Experience designing bladed turbopump components (inducers, impellers, turbines)
• Experience working in a flight development program

Relativity Space offers competitive salary and equity, a generous vacation policy, an annual L&D stipend and more! 

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.