Staff 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.

About the Role: 

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.

Your responsibilities will include but not be limited to the following:

• 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.

In order to be successful in this role you must be someone who is self-motivated adaptable and is able to lead your own projects to completion in a fast-paced environment. Ideally you have significant mechanical or structural design experience and a proven track record completing collaborative projects effectively.

On a weekly basis you will be designing flight components for our upcoming Terran R vehicle using NX/TeamCenter performing analysis using Nastran ANSYS and/or hand calculations creating and releasing drawings as well as supporting fabrication of your components. You will own your design from requirements to production. You will also use your strong organizational skills to properly document your work and present your recommendations when decisions are needed.

About You:  

• 8+ years of experience in a design engineering role.
• Bachelor’s degree in engineering or related technical discipline
• Significant 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

Nice to haves but not required:  

• 8+ years of mechanical or structural design & analysis experience.
• Extensive experience with NX/TeamCenter.
• Expertise using Nastran and ANSYS.
• Experience with GD&T and drafting.

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.

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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