Instrumentation Engineer II

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.

Team:  

The Avionics team is responsible for the full lifecycle of all electronics and supporting hardware central to operating Relativity's rockets. The team designs, builds, tests, integrates, and operates the hardware which controls the rocket in flight, downlinks critical telemetry, keeps the public safe, and deploys our customers' payloads to orbit! Our hardware enables Relativity to reliably control our rockets while maintaining the flexibility to rapidly iterate our designs. As a member of this team, you will design innovative hardware solutions capable of surviving harsh launch and space environments. Your designs will support multiple vehicle systems such as sensors, propulsion, computing, actuation, energy management, and communications.

What you’ll do:

• Work with Propulsion, Fluids, Structures, Flight Sciences, and other teams to identify and develop vehicle instrumentation requirements
• Identify sensors and actuators such as pressure transducers; RTDs; thermocouples; accelerometers; solenoid valves; etc. that are suitable for use on the Terran 1 and Terran R launch vehicles
• Collaborate with Avionics Hardware engineers to ensure designed system meets instrumentation requirements such as ranges, resolutions, sample rates, and cutoff frequencies
• Maintain electrical interface and sensor/actuator configuration control: naming and channelization, serial numbers, calibrations, and data acquisition settings
• Develop and execute on-vehicle sensor calibration and checkout plans
• Oversee procurement, qualification, and acceptance testing of vehicle instrumentation
• Up to 25% travel to our test and launch sites in Stennis Space Center, MS and Cape Canaveral, FL

What you need to know:  

• Bachelor's degree or higher with a focus in an engineering discipline: aerospace, electrical, mechanical, etc.
• 3+ years of experience with development and integration of instrumentation and data acquisition systems for complex, mission-critical products (flight test, rocket launch systems, automotive, large-scale manufacturing, robotics, etc.)
• Experience with sensors and actuators such as pressure transducers, RTDs, accelerometers, strain gages, frequency-to-DC sensors, microphones, thermocouples, solenoid valves, etc.
• Excellent understanding of instrumentation and data acquisition fundamentals: measurement theory, Nyquist sampling theorem, DC circuit basics, grounding and shielding, analog-to-digital conversion
• Demonstrated ownership, accountability, and success in delivering complex products with minimal guidance
• Strong interpersonal communication skills

Nice to haves but not required:  

• Experience writing test plans and documentation
• Familiarity with scripting languages such as Python or MATLAB for data acquisition, recording, and analysis
• Experience with instrumentation in harsh environments (cryogenic temperatures, high vibration)
• Previous experience with COTS data acquisition systems such as NI, Curtiss-Wright, Safran, or Beckhoff
• Understanding of digital buses such as Ethernet, CAN, I2C, SPI

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.