Staff Manufacturing Engineer, Mechanisms

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:  

The Manufacturing team at Relativity Space is currently deep in manufacturing trades and process development for Terran R, our next generation, fully re-useable rocket. This team has a wide variety of responsibilities—from determining the most efficient factory floor layout, to developing and implementing complex tooling and processes, and even interfacing with the vehicle engineering team to heavily influence the design of the rocket. Unique to Relativity, you will get to work across many teams to iterate and support Relativity's first-of-its-kind 3D printing software and robotics technology. 

The Mechanisms Manufacturing team at Relativity Space is currently in the design release and New Product Introduction phase for Terran R, our next generation, fully re-useable rocket. This team is responsible for working alongside the vehicle design and test teams to develop hardware that enables Terran R reusability, such as landing legs, separation and release mechanisms, and linear and rotary electromechanical actuators. Overall, this team is critical to the development and initial builds of Terran R. To meet its goals, the team will drive products from design concept, through prototype and initial builds, through functional acceptance testing, and ensure successful integration onto the Terran R vehicle. The team will also establish the manufacturing and business practices and processes necessary to move fast while still producing high quality, well understood products. 

About the Role: 

In this role, you will advocate for scalable manufacturing in product design trades and reviews, ensuring that manufacturing considerations are integrated early in the design process. You will develop build flow planning, large-scale part logistics, tooling design, conceptualizing & sourcing, analyze build & test data, workcenter capacity modelling and complex electro-mechanical assembly work planning and execution. To be successful in this role, you need to be a self-starter that can thrive in ambiguity, identify problems and quickly resolve them, and provide definition to the previously undefined. You should have a commitment to quality and the discipline required to achieve it. 

• Lead develop, qualification, implementation of major manufacturing strategies and processes to improve productivity and enhance product quality. 
• Be the primary liaison between the design teams and production organization to improve vehicle production efficiency and quality. 
• Contribute to design reviews acting as an expert in design for manufacturability, design for testability, improvement opportunities and inspection methods.  
• Foster strong collaborative relationships with design, production, and quality assurance, facilitating effective communication and coordination to ensure alignment with company objectives and successful execution of manufacturing processes. 
• Own a major mechanized subassembly and its child components from design release through test and successful integration onto the Terran R launch vehicle—lay out the build and test flow to ensure an efficient, high-quality product flow capable of scaling with time. 
• Drive the assembly’s first build and test effort through design integration, assembly sequencing, mBOM development, build and test work order creation, and specification authoring.  
• Support workcenter development by considering assembly and test operations, tooling and capital equipment requirements, and company operational goals.   
• Provide hands-on support to the shop floor and production personnel, promptly addressing any issues that arise and offering upstream feedback to drive innovation in manufacturing technology.   
• Mentor junior manufacturing engineers, providing guidance to support technical and professional development. 
• Analyze and disposition recurring manufacturing discrepancies and lead multi-disciplinary teams on root cause analysis and corrective actions. 

About You:  

You have demonstrated experience working cross-functionally to build large scope first article assemblies, resolve complex manufacturing issues, and meeting production demand. The ideal candidate has a strong mindset toward simple design solutions, quality, root cause analysis, and implementation of reliable and productive processes. You’re a tinkerer but also a self-starter who can balance and prioritize daily tasks that contribute to short- and long-term company goals.   

• BS degree in aerospace, mechanical, or manufacturing engineering 
• 7+ years of experience building and testing hardware in a manufacturing environment. 
• Ability to work autonomously with little supervision in a fast-paced environment. 
• Extensive experience authoring work instructions and/or test procedures to build and test interdisciplinary mechanical, electrical, and pneumatic assemblies.  
• Experience interfacing with design engineering, manufacturing, and production personnel. 
• Extensive experience managing and implementing large process and/or quality improvements. 
• Experience with scheduling and resource management/allocation. 
• Experience designing tooling or owning tooling development as a manufacturing representative. 
• Expert in at least 2 of the following: machining, precision drilling, mechanical fastening and torqueing operations, electrical and pneumatic checkouts, integrated testing, mating operations, large scale part lifting, tool design and fab, subassembly workcenter development. 
• Capacity and rate planning experience for manual workcenters, capital equipment, GSE/eGSE. 
• ERP and MES experience. 

Nice to haves but not required:  

• MS degree in aerospace, mechanical, electrical or manufacturing engineering. 
• Experience transitioning products from prototype to high volume production. 
• Self-starter that has demonstrated the ability to define and own a process from scratch and roll out that process through adept communication to a diverse team. 
• New product introduction of an aerospace hardware system into a manufacturing, test, and production system with proven success. 
• Working knowledge of rocket subsystems including structures, mechanisms, high pressure gas systems and avionics. 
• Experience developing user interfaces for manufacturing execution. 
• Experience in leading, executing, and managing projects in a fast-paced environment. 

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.