Vehicle Structures Engineer

About the Team:

The Structures and Mechanisms team is responsible for the full design, build, and test lifecycle of Terran R’s integrated structures and flight mechanisms. Whether you're working on highly iterative mechanisms that move or tight-margin structures that shouldn’t, you’ll get hands-on hardware ownership and see the rocket coming to life on the factory floor. Both teams fall under one department, sharing design principles, tools, and an integrated approach that provides a comprehensive view of Terran R.

Team members work on multiple parts, not just within a single subsystem, and are empowered to make decisions that directly impact flight hardware. Beyond first flight, you’ll play a critical role in refining for manufacturability and speed.

The scope of work encompasses a full design cycle, including conceptualization, design, analysis, manufacturing and testing for primary and secondary structures related to Thrust Structure, Propellant Tanks, Interstage or Fairing, to name a few. You will need to think creatively and leverage innovation to reduce mass, parts, processes and tooling required.

• Innovative conceptualization of structural load path, design for complex structures and adjacent system packaging.
• Review of static & dynamic load inputs, material properties & test as well as structural systems & subsystems requirements.
• Analysis and sizing of flight structures to ensure timely design reviews and drawing release.
• Develop and support hardware test campaigns, including test integration, operation and result evaluation.
• Support manufacturing process development.

• 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 Elements Methods and industry tools) and test.
• Fundamental knowledge of structures strength, stability and fatigue failure mechanisms.
• Fundamental knowledge of additive and traditional manufacturing processes.
• Full life cycle project ownership experience.

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

At Relativity Space, we are committed to transparency and fairness in our compensation practices. Actual compensation will be determined based on experience, qualifications, and other job-related factors. Compensation is only one part of our total rewards package. Relativity Space offers competitive salary and equity, a generous PTO and sick leave policy, parental leave, an annual learning and development stipend, and more!

To see some of the benefits & perks we offer, please visit here.

Hiring Range: $90,000 — $124,500 USD

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.

If you need a reasonable accommodation, please contact us at accom