Production Manager, Mechanisms
Relativity Space
At Relativity Space, we’re building rockets to serve today’s needs and tomorrow’s breakthroughs. Our Terran R vehicle 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.
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. Whether you’re in propulsion, manufacturing, software, avionics, or a corporate function, you’ll collaborate across teams, shape decisions, and see your work come to life in record time. Relativity is a place where creativity and technical rigor go hand in hand, and your voice will help define the stories we’re writing together. Now is a unique moment in time where it’s early enough to leave your mark on the product, the process, and the culture, but far enough along that Terran R is tangible and picking up momentum. The most meaningful work of your career is waiting. Join us.
About the Team:
The Stage Manufacturing team turns design into reality, owning the build of Terran R’s primary structures. This isn’t about turning the same bolt every day; it’s about building the systems to build the rocket. Engineers and technicians work side by side, with deep collaboration and real-time feedback, to shape how we build better and faster. With a manifest and a launch date, it’s up to the team to deliver on Terran R: solving challenges in real time, optimizing for scale, and constantly improving processes. As the vehicle evolves, so will the factory, with opportunities to apply automation, machine learning, and advanced technologies. What we build here sets the blueprint for the future of scaled launch.
About the Role:
As a Production Manager of Mechanisms, you will be accountable for a key lane (or lanes) of the vehicle manufacturing value stream—electro-mechanical, pneumatics, advanced sub-assemblies, development fabrication shop, and testing. You will have purview over production and operations teams. A high degree of proactivity, technical & operational versatility, and people skills are required to be successful in this role. You will be expected to oscillate between big picture strategy and tactical operations on a whim. Key responsibilities will include:
- Accountable for leading and managing a diversely skilled production organization across 2 shifts to build Terran-R.
- Manage and drive hardware builds. This will involve reviewing work instructions, executing to WO’s, identifying and removing operational roadblocks, and doing everything within your power to guarantee achievement of on-time delivery, cost, and quality targets.
- Ensure a culture of safety, quality, and excellence is communicated and upheld.
- Drive quality metrics to continuously improve product output of the manufacturing team.
- Partner with Specialist team to identify & track key technician trainings to ensure all skillsets are met prior to beginning operations.
- Defining the strategy to transition team from low-volume development environment to high-volume production environment on short time-frame; responsible for communicating a clear, actionable plan to set team up for success. This may involve: tracking labor hours to identify bottlenecks in key processes. conducting capacity analyses to justify additional personnel or equipment, standing up a scalable Production program, building the necessary tools, schedules, reports, and reviews to ensure a data-backed story on Terran-R’s hardware health is presented and understood by the cross-disciplinary team and leadership, spearhead initiatives to support more effective and efficient vehicle hardware build, develop strong working relationships with Supply Chain, Materials Management, Quality, and Vehicle Manufacturing and developing and mentoring production staff to meet team and company goals.
About You:
- 8+ years of experience in an operations-focused role
- 6+ years of experience formally leading or managing a Production team
- 4+ years of experience formally leading leaders
- Extensive experience developing scalable business processes
- Highly collaborative, strong communication skills, and ability to navigate diverse backgrounds (engineering, technician, executive, etc.), with a relentless pursuit of production excellence—safety, quality, and schedule at forefront
- Comfortable with constructive conflict and difficult conversations, so long as it moves the business forward and a high degree of self-awareness and self-starting abilities; able to influence others in and outside of your organization.
Nice to haves but not required:
- Extensive Production scaling experience (i.e., hiring 10’s to 100’s over short time-frames)
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.
If you need a reasonable accommodation, please contact us at accommodations@relativityspace.com.