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:
Relativity’s Integrated Performance teams ensure that our products work across all systems and disciplines, from trajectory design to aerodynamics to reliability analysis and beyond. Our groups size the Terran R rocket, design its missions for customer success, reliability, and reusability, and ensure that every system on the rocket and ground is engineered correctly for the demanding environments of launch and entry. Recently, we completed the preliminary design and analysis of Terran R including Relativity’s first-ever work on launch vehicle reusability, spanning advanced trajectory simulations, wind tunnel testing, and structures analysis, among many other projects.
About the Role:
- Develop and execute computational fluid dynamics (CFD) analyses to solve novel challenges in vehicle entry heating and supersonic retropropulsion
- Drive the design of major Terran R system elements – like fins, flaps, heat shields, and primary structure – to meet criteria for temperature and heating
- Guide and mentor responsible hardware engineers to ensure hardware meets aerothermal requirements
- Scope and develop aerothermal databases for ascent and entry, including uncertainty quantification, from multiple sources like CFD, empirical methods, and wind tunnel testing
- Size thermal protection systems (TPS) for flight
- Support re-usable TPS material development and testing
- Mature Relativity’s tools for developing and communicating aerothermal data, including custom and commercial code, databases, and data processing tools
To be successful in this role, you should be self-motivated, adaptable, and able to contribute significantly to a fast-paced, integrated vehicle program. You should also be able to resolve ambiguity and drive projects to completion. Ideally, you have significant compressible flow, CFD, thermal analysis, and conjugate heat transfer experience as well as a proven track record completing projects successfully in a highly collaborative environment.
On a weekly basis, you will be performing analysis, developing software tools, and supporting design teams. You will also use your strong organizational skills to properly manage the documentation and communication of your actions, recommendations, and decisions.
About You:
- Undergraduate degree in engineering or related field
- 2+ years relevant experience
- Proficiency in compressible flow and thermal analysis, preferably on entry vehicles
- Experience executing CFD workflows for external flow, preferably including engine plume simulation
- Experience solving cross-disciplinary design problems on integrated vehicles
Nice to Haves, but Not Required:
- Graduate degree in engineering or related field
- 5+ years relevant experience across 1 or more program lifecycles
- Experience with thermal protection system sizing & analysis using standard tools like FIAT, CHAR, MINIVER, or LAURA
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:
$111,000—$142,000 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.
Top Skills
Relativity Space Long Beach, California, USA Office
We have two sites in Long Beach, CA's Space Beach: "The Wormhole," a 1M sq. ft. factory, once Boeing C-17's home. Nearby, "The Portal" supports Aeon R engine production for our Terran R launch vehicle.
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