Senior Structures Manufacturing 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:  

The Stage 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 regularly interfacing with the vehicle engineering team to heavily influence the design of the rocket for streamlined manufacturing. Overall, this team is critical to the development and initial builds of Terran R. This team pulls together the efforts of design, additive, vehicle, and manufacturing teams to deliver flight-ready vehicles for test and launch. To meet our goals, we will drive the product from design concept through the build to structural acceptance test, ensuring the team can move fast while still producing high quality, well understood products.

About the Role: 

The Structures Manufacturing team is responsible for working alongside the vehicle design team to develop Terran R primary structures, while also leading the charge on mechanical assembly. To meet our goals, we will build best in class manufacturing, test, and quality control processes to keep our team moving fast while still producing high quality, well understood products.  Overall, this team is critical to the development and initial builds of Terran R.

To be successful in this role, you need to be a self-starter that is able to 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. You will set the tone for how mBOM’s are architected and work orders are written, how issues on the floor are addressed, and how test operations are run on the vehicle. You will be a trail blazer for the company, so you need to be self-motivated and able to influence both Engineering and Production in order to effectively implement your plans. You will need to be comfortable with desk work such as writing work instructions and analyzing test data as well as hands on work setting up work cells, assembling hardware and running test operations. You should be comfortable operating and troubleshooting complicated systems comprised of mechanical hardware, electronic hardware, and software.

• Own a major primary structure assembly and its child subassemblies from design release through ATP Test—lay out the build flow to ensure an efficient, high-quality product flow capable of scaling with time.
• Represent the manufacturing organization in focused cross-functional teams to down-select concepts that are being evaluated for their feasibility from a Structures Manufacturing perspective.
• Generate the build mBOMs, CONOPS, build schedule, and maintain throughout the development process.
• Create work instructions, specifications, and best practices across multiple high-fidelity processes. Help standardize processes across the manufacturing team.
• Establish the stations within the inaugural work cell by considering assembly operations, tooling and capital equipment requirements, and rate targets
• Support the shop floor through live issue resolution and provide upstream feedback as we innovate the next generation of manufacturing technology.
• Provide Design for Manufacturing feedback to structures teams during the development phase and through the first prototype and flight builds.
• Assist with building and developing the manufacturing team, via participation on interview panels and mentorship opportunities for interns and less experienced team members
• Develop strong working relationships with both Engineering and Factory Development teams to ensure all company objectives can be me

About You: 

• Bachelor of Science degree in aerospace, mechanical, manufacturing, or related engineering discipline
• Minimum 5 years of experience building hardware in a manufacturing environment
• Experience with design for manufacture and building first articles
• Experience interfacing with design engineering, manufacturing, and production personnel
• Experience authoring work instructions to build structural assemblies and sub-assemblies
• Experience in tooling development as a manufacturing representative, particularly for welding and trim/drill operations
• Experience working with structures, critical lifts, weldment, machining, and assemblies
• Experience in leading, executing, and managing projects in a fast-paced environment
• Experience owning tooling development as a manufacturing representative, particularly for integration access and serviceability
• Experience with manufacturing execution systems and quality management systems

Nice to haves but not required:  

• Experience transitioning products from prototype to mass production 
• New product introduction of an aerospace hardware system into a manufacturing, test, and production system with proven success 
• Experience developing user interfaces for manufacturing and test execution 
• Experience planning and test conducting hazardous operations

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.