Senior Composite Manufacturing Engineer, Mechanisms
Relativity Space
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.
This team handles a broad range of responsibilities, collaborating closely with vehicle design, factory test and production to develop hardware that supports rocket reusability. This includes key components like landing legs, pneumatic separation and release mechanisms, and linear and rotary electromechanical actuators. Additionally, the team is responsible for optimizing factory floor layouts and designing and implementing intricate tooling and processes. Unique to Relativity, you will get to work across many teams to iterate and support development of the vehicle program. To be successful in this role, you need to be a self-starter that can thrive in ambiguity, identify problems and quickly resolve them, and provide definition to the previously undefined. You should have a commitment to quality and the discipline required to achieve it.
About the Role:
- Own major composite structural subassemblies and its child components from design release through test and successful integration onto the Terran R launch vehicle—lay out the build and test flow to ensure an efficient, high-quality product flow capable of scaling with time.
- Collaborate with the procurement team to strategically source suppliers capable of producing aerospace-grade composite structures and implement the Production Part Approval Process (PPAP) to ensure materials and structures meet aerospace standards and design requirements.
- Drive development of internal processes for composite manufacturing, including trimming, drilling, surface preparation, adhesive bonding, mechanical assembly, grounding and repair to ensure consistent quality and compliance with design requirements and industry best practices.
- Support workcenter development by considering assembly and test operations, safety, tooling and capital equipment requirements, and company operational goals.
- Provide technical support to external suppliers and internal production personnel, promptly addressing any issues that arise and offering upstream feedback to drive design for manufacturability. Analyze and disposition recurring manufacturing discrepancies and lead multi-disciplinary teams on root cause analysis and corrective actions.
- Foster a culture of critical thinking and imaginative problem-solving, constantly challenging the established norms in engineering and manufacturing, and pushing the boundaries to achieve efficient production throughout workcenter. Mentor junior manufacturing engineers, providing guidance to support technical and professional development.
About You:
- BS degree in aerospace, mechanical, or manufacturing engineering with 5+ years of experience in building advance composite and bonded structures in a manufacturing environment.
- Extensive experience authoring work instructions and/or test procedures to build and test composite structures.
- Experience interfacing with design engineering, manufacturing, and production personnel.
- Extensive experience leading, executing and managing large process and/or quality improvements with large scope of ownership.
- Ability to work autonomously with little supervision in a fast-paced environment.
- Expert in at least 2 of the following: Composite machining, hand layup lamination, Automated Fiber Placement (AFP), autoclave operation, structural bonding, composite trim/drill, mechanical fastening, and torqueing operations, grounding, build & test of electrical and/or pneumatic assemblies, tooling design and fabrication, subassembly workcenter development.
Nice to haves but not required:
- New product introduction of an aerospace hardware system into a manufacturing, test, and production system with proven success. Along with transitioning products from prototype to high volume production.
- Working knowledge of rocket subsystems including structures, high voltage systems(320V+), high pressure pneumatic systems and avionics.
- Expert understanding GD&T and drafting principles.
- Experience in capacity analyses, DFMEA/PFMEA, value stream mapping, PPAP
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.
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.