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:
The Manufacturing team owns all process development, fabrication strategy, and production equipment for Terran R, our next generation, reusable rocket. This team has a wide variety of responsibilities – from factory floor layout, to developing complex tooling for novel processes, and interfacing with our vehicle engineering team to heavily influence design of the rocket. We leverage our deep expertise to translate engineering requirements into highly optimized production lines, working cross functionally to consistently enhance the vehicle program
About the Role:
As a Principal Automation Control Systems engineer, you will be responsible for the technical leadership and growing a team dedicated to building and expanding factory automation within the manufacturing organization. Additional responsibilities include architecting automation solutions for the manufacturing organization. The projects you work on will provide solutions across the factory ranging from quick turn interim development setups to large permanent infrastructure. You will work in collaboration with mechanical, manufacturing, and design engineers to develop solutions tailored to a broad range of applications and manufacturing processes. Once your hardware is built, you will also own implementation, working closely with technicians, operators, and end users - including writing and debugging control software.
Your projects will span a variety of construction methods, sizes, and applications. These could include anything from simple data displays to large multi axis motion control equipment. The kinds of projects you will work on may include:
- Driving the technical direction of factory automation in the manufacturing group
- Architecting factory automation solutions to improve speed, quality, reliability and efficiency in the manufacturing process
- Large scale multi axis custom CNC based systems
- Robotic based assembly and inspection equipment
About You:
- Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, or a related field
- 25+ years of experience developing, activating, and troubleshooting CNC (Fanuc, Siemens), robotic (Fanuc, Kuka, Abb etc.), or automated systems (Beckhoff, etc.)
- Experience designing, project managing, and executing on robotic and automation systems in a rate production or factory setting
- Experience writing software for industry standard control systems (CNC, PLCs, motor drives)
- Demonstrated ability to design and implement industrial safety systems including risk assessments
- Demonstrated ability to identify and mitigate technical risks in complex systems
Nice to haves but not required:
- Experience producing electrical and pneumatics documentation
- Experience writing control software for Siemens CNCs/PLCs
- Experience with Kuka, Fanuc, ABB, or similar robotics control systems
- Experience with communications methods such as, but not limited to, Profinet, Ethernet, EtherCAT, and CANbus.
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:
$233,000—$297,000 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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