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Relativity Space

Senior Mechanical Engineer

Long Beach, California, United States
Salary
$132,000 - $198,000
Level
Senior

Not stated in the posting: work type, visa.

Open. First seen 2 October 2026.

Apply on the company's site →

About the role

Relativity Space's standard text

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 Fluids team is responsible for the design and delivery of propellant, pressurant, pneumatics, and other fluid systems that turn structures into functioning rockets! The team has full ownership across design, production, test, and flight, maintaining a holistic view of Terran R, focused not on isolated parts but integrated functionality. Working on-site at the factory means you’re never far from the hardware, enabling rapid iteration and tight feedback loops across design and manufacturing.

You won’t just be handed requirements: you’ll be expected to ask the right questions, collaborate with partners across the company, and ultimately find the best solutions for Terran R.

About the Role:

In this role, you will be responsible for the hardware design and implementation of that hardware into vehicle fluid systems, ensuring a reliable and efficient operation of our Terran R launch vehicle. Your primary tasks will be focused on:

  • Design and analysis of clean sheet of pressure components for launch vehicle fluid and propulsion systems
  • Detailed fluid, thermal, and structural analysis of piece parts and assemblies
  • Development and qualification test planning and execution of internally developed components
  • Conducting trade studies to produce architectures and designs that satisfy system requirements

About You:

  • Bachelor’s degree (Mechanical Engineering or relevant)
  • 5+ years of experience working with fluids system component design
  • Direct experience applying engineering fundamentals in thermodynamics, structures, fluid dynamics, and heat transfer
  • Experience with CFD and FEA tools (ANSYS)
  • Project experience with all the following:
  • Experience with a commercial CAD package (NX, CREO, Solidworks)
  • Experience designing fluid system pressure components (fittings, seals, valves, regulators, etc.) and qualifying them for aerospace applications
  • Experience with FEA (ie. ANSYS, FEMAP) tools to analyze component structural margins

Nice to haves but not required:

  • Experience with internal flow CFD to assess component performance

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:

Relativity Space's standard text

$132,000—$198,000 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.

If you need a reasonable accommodation, please contact us at accommodations@relativityspace.com.

Please note: Relativity Space does not accept unsolicited resumes, candidate profiles, or referrals from recruitment agencies or search firms. Any unsolicited submission - via email, our website, social media, or directly to an employee - will be deemed the property of Relativity Space, and no fee will be owed absent a current, fully executed agreement with Talent Acquisition that specifically authorizes submissions for the applicable role.

What this role asks for

54% of this description is written for the role. The rest is Relativity Space's standard text, folded away below.

Read against Relativity Space's other open postings on this site.

The team: Vehicle Fluids Engineering HIRES STEADILY

This role is one of 7 open in Vehicle Fluids Engineering. 1 was posted in the last 30 days and the oldest in July: a team that hires all year rather than one being built.

WHAT THE TEAM WORKS WITH, ACROSS ITS POSTINGS

Python (4 of 7), C++ (2 of 7), Creo (2 of 7), FEA (2 of 7), MATLAB (2 of 7), SolidWorks (2 of 7)

OTHER ROLES ON THIS TEAM

From the team and dates on Relativity Space's own job board.

Salary context

79 other open postings titled Senior Mechanical Engineer state a salary: median USD 135,000 to USD 183,000 a year.

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