Staff Software Engineer Interplanetary Networking

About the Team: 

The Interplanetary Sciences Program was established to expand access to scientific exploration across our solar system. Its mission is to make planetary research faster more affordable and more capable than ever before by rethinking how science missions are designed built and operated. The program aims to enable scientists to send instruments to distant worlds without decades of development or prohibitive costs. By creating a sustainable model for interplanetary exploration we are transforming space science from an occasional event into a continuous process of discovery that accelerates knowledge broadens participation and inspires the next generation of explorers. 

About the Role:

• Own the Delay Tolerant Networking (DTN) and Bundle Protocol implementation for a space-based data center making interplanetary internet real and operational — designing building and validating the primary data transfer pathway that moves science data from instruments through onboard processing and out over deep-space communication links
• Design and implement the full Bundle Protocol stack — custody transfer fragmentation and assured delivery — with the rigor that comes from knowing a protocol bug over a Mars link means data that may never be recovered
• Build DTN routing logic integrated with the payload scheduler orchestrating data movement across science collection windows downlink passes and UHF relay contacts enabling semi-autonomous scheduling and routing across all onboard sources and communication links
• Own the payload network stack from OSI layers 4 through 7 including network management and monitoring software providing end-to-end data flow validation from instrument acquisition through NAS storage onboard processing and downlink
• Integrate with partner DTN development groups and the broader deep-space networking community bridging open-source DTN implementations with mission-specific requirements and operational constraints

About You:

• MS + 5 years or PhD + 3 years in networking distributed systems or a related field with 8+ years of total software experience
• Deep experience with network protocol design and implementation — you've built or substantially modified protocol stacks not just configured them
• Strong systems programming skills in C and/or Rust with experience writing concurrent and distributed systems software
• Solid understanding of Linux networking internals and protocol state machine design with attention to formal correctness
• Demonstrated ability to analyze and optimize network performance — throughput latency and reliability under constrained conditions

Nice to haves but not required:  

• Direct experience with Delay Tolerant Networking Bundle Protocol (RFC 9171) or store-and-forward networking over disruption-tolerant links
• Familiarity with open-source DTN implementations such as ION HDTN or µD3TN
• Experience with contact graph routing or other DTN routing algorithms
• Knowledge of CCSDS networking standards and deep-space communication link characteristics — light-time delay intermittent contacts eclipse periods
• Background in embedded or constrained-environment software architecture where resources and link availability cannot be taken for granted
• Experience with simulation-based testing of network protocols under disruption delay and loss conditions

What We Do

Relativity Space is on a mission to better connect humanity to space and the universe beyond our planet. Our medium-to-heavy lift reusable rocket Terran R will deliver customer payloads to orbit meeting the growing demand for launch capacity. But that’s just the start. Achieving commercial success with Terran R will unlock new opportunities to advance science exploration and innovation pioneering progress that reaches beyond the known.

Why Work With Us

Joining Relativity means becoming part of something where autonomy ownership and impact exist at every level. Here you're not just executing tasks; you're solving problems that haven’t been solved before helping develop a rocket a factory and a business from the ground up.

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