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Relativity Space

Staff Vehicle Systems Engineer

On site

Long beach, United states

Senior

Full Time

22-01-2026

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Skills

Communication Creativity Python Go Jira DevOps Configuration Management Test Architecture Autonomy Organization Organizational Skills

Job Specifications

Job Description Job Description
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 Systems Engineering team ensures that Terran R comes together as a cohesive, high-performing, and scalable system. Within the department, one team focuses on building tools and processes to manage requirements, track decisions, and identify and mitigate risk - enabling faster, more informed development across the program. Engineers work across domains to understand complex problems, identify solutions, and implement them - all with deep technical knowledge, not just documentation. The other team focuses on the vehicle itself, working across teams to ensure all subsystems of Terran R function together as intended, burning down technical risk, and driving informed decisions at every stage of the vehicle lifecycle. Engineers are empowered to lead high-impact efforts, from major test campaigns to console operations during launch, and are trusted to drive improvements across fluids, structures, avionics, and more. Regardless of which team you're on, you'll be part of a high-visibility, high-impact department at a pivotal moment in the program, where decisions made today on trades, architecture, and process will shape not just the first launch, but the long-term trajectory of Relativity.
About the Role:
As a Staff Systems Engineer, you will collaborate with team members across the organization while contributing to the development of Relativity's engineering processes and tools to enable the design, development, certification, and flight of the Terran R launch system.
Projects and responsibilities include the following:
Develop the Systems Engineering tools and methodology roadmap, helping align the needs of various disciplines and the overall project from development to launch
Build, continuously improve, or eliminate engineering processes to support an efficient, product-focused culture
Prototype, implement, and rollout processes, tools, and automation that enable better design and test collaboration across the company
Manage the vehicle design and development processes from beginning to end, ranging from working with department leaders on setting expectations, making progress visible, and ensuring the processes are effective
Provide engineering expertise to solve technical problems at all levels.
As a Staff level Systems Engineer, you will be expected to perform the above responsibilities autonomously, requiring little oversite.
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 experience in: Systems Engineering, Verification and Validation (V&V), and Requirement Management experience, Vehicle Configuration Management, Launch Vehicle certification as well as a proven track record completing projects successfully in a highly collaborative environment.
On a weekly basis, you will be developing processes and tools, supporting design teams, and working collaboratively with IT and DevOps. You will also use your strong organizational skills to properly manage the documentation and communication of your actions, recommendations, and decisions.
About You:
Staff: An undergraduate degree in engineering or related field and 10+ years relevant experience
Experience performing cross-functional engineering and integration for complex systems
Experience solving difficult problems with multiple stakeholders in a fast-paced environment
Proven track record of contributing to project completion
Experience workflows and automation within Jira or equivalent
Experience writing automation scripts in Python or other languages
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About the Company

A rocket company at the core, Relativity Space is on a mission to become the next great commercial launch company. With an ever-growing need for space infrastructure, demand for launch services is continuously outpacing supply. Our reusable rockets can meet this demand, offering customers the right size payload capacity at the right cost. Leveraging advances in additive manufacturing, we are strategically focused on reducing vehicle complexity, cost, and time to market. Our patented technologies enable innovative designs onc... Know more