Vehicle Structures Engineer I

About Relativity Space

Relativity Space is building rockets to serve today's needs and tomorrow's breakthroughs. The Terran R vehicle will deliver customer payloads to orbit, meeting growing demand for launch capacity. Commercial success with Terran R will open new opportunities in science, exploration, and innovation.

Relativity offers autonomy, ownership, and impact at every level. Across propulsion, manufacturing, software, avionics, and corporate functions, you will collaborate across teams, shape decisions, and see your work come to life quickly. Creativity and technical rigor go hand in hand here.

About the Team

The Structures and Mechanisms team handles the full design, build, and test lifecycle of Terran R's integrated structures and flight mechanisms. Team members work on multiple parts across subsystems, with hands-on hardware ownership and decisions that directly affect flight hardware. Beyond first flight, you will help refine designs for manufacturability and speed.

About the Role

The scope covers the full design cycle, including conceptualization, design, analysis, manufacturing, and testing of primary and secondary structures such as the Thrust Structure, Propellant Tanks, Interstage, and Fairing. You will use creative thinking and innovation to reduce mass, parts, processes, and tooling.

Responsibilities include:

• Conceptualizing structural load paths, designing complex structures, and packaging adjacent systems.
• Reviewing static and dynamic load inputs, material properties, and test data, along with structural system and subsystem requirements.
• Analyzing and sizing flight structures to keep design reviews and drawing releases on schedule.
• Developing and supporting hardware test campaigns, including test integration, operation, and result evaluation.
• Supporting manufacturing process development.

Success in this role requires self-motivation, adaptability, and the ability to lead your own projects to completion in a fast-paced setting. Significant mechanical or structural design experience and a track record of effective collaboration are ideal.

Each week you will design flight components for the Terran R vehicle in NX/TeamCenter, perform analysis with Nastran, ANSYS, and/or hand calculations, create and release drawings, and support fabrication of your components. You will own your design from requirements through production, document your work thoroughly, and present recommendations when decisions are needed.

About You

• 0-2+ years of experience in a design engineering role.
• Bachelor's degree in a related discipline.
• Experience with industry-standard CAD packages such as NX, Creo, or SolidWorks.
• Working knowledge of structural analysis (hand calculation, finite element methods, and industry tools) and testing.
• Fundamental knowledge of structural strength, stability, and fatigue failure mechanisms.
• Fundamental knowledge of additive and traditional manufacturing processes.
• Experience owning projects through their full life cycle.
• Hiring timeline: Relativity is actively hiring for immediate openings. Candidates should have completed their degree and be available to start full-time employment within 30-60 days of applying. If your availability falls outside this window, you are welcome to apply once you are within 30-60 days of being available to start.

Nice to Have (Not Required)

• Extensive experience with NX/TeamCenter.
• Expertise using Nastran and ANSYS.
• Experience with GD&T and drafting.