Staff Thermal Engineer

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:

As a Staff Thermal Engineer within the Interplanetary Sciences Program at Relativity Space you will own the development and application of the spacecraft thermal model that directly guides the design qualification and operation of an interplanetary spacecraft. You will define the thermal architecture from first principles translate mission environments and operational concepts into hardware requirements and serve as the thermal technical authority across the vehicle lifecycle. This role spans early architecture and trade studies through test correlation flight qualification and mission operations and requires strong technical judgment analytical skills autonomy and systems-level thinking. 

Essential Duties and Responsibilities: 

• Develop maintain and mature integrated spacecraft thermal models at the vehicle subsystem and component levels
• Define thermal architectures and requirements and iterate hardware designs in collaboration with cross-disciplinary engineering teams
• Generate flight temperature predictions margins and off-nominal analyses and communicate actionable guidance to the broader engineering team
• Ensure spacecraft payloads remains within operating and survival limits across all mission phases using robust passive and active thermal control strategies
• Correlate thermal models to component subsystem and vehicle-level test and/or flight data

About You:

• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Aerospace Engineering Mechanical Engineering or a closely related field
  
• 6+ years of experience developing and applying thermal models for spacecraft or flight hardware
• Proficiency with spacecraft thermal analysis tools such as Thermal Desktop ANSYS or other software
• Experience anchoring thermal models to test and/or flight data and using results to drive design decisions
• Strong understanding of lumped-parameter (0D/1D) thermal networks and appropriate use of higher-fidelity methods
• Effective technical communicator with demonstrated success working cross-functionally in fast-paced environments

Nice to haves but not required:  

• Familiarity with spaceflight thermal margin qualification and verification standards (e.g. SMC-S-016)
• Experience planning or executing spacecraft environmental testing including TVAC
• Experience across a full spacecraft lifecycle from concept development through on-orbit operations
• Prior experience supporting flight thermal predictions or mission operations

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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