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Senior Mechanisms Systems Engineer

Verified
Relativity Space
Posted 1 weeks ago
Posted 23 April 2026
full-time

About the Role

<div class="content-intro"><p><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">At Relativity Space, we’re building rockets to serve today’s needs and tomorrow’s breakthroughs. Our&nbsp;Terran R vehicle will deliver customer payloads to orbit, meeting the growing demand for launch&nbsp;capacity. But that’s just the start. Achieving commercial success with Terran R will unlock new&nbsp;opportunities to advance science, exploration, and innovation, pioneering progress that reaches beyond&nbsp;the known.</span></p> <p><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">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 </span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">technical rigor go hand in hand, and your voice will help define the stories we’re writing together. Now&nbsp;is a unique moment in time where it’s early enough to leave your mark on the product, the process, and&nbsp;the culture, but far enough along that Terran R is tangible and picking up momentum. The most&nbsp;meaningful work of your career is waiting. Join us.</span></p></div><p><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"><strong><span data-contrast="none">About the Team:&nbsp;</span></strong></span></p> <p><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">The&nbsp;Mechanisms Team&nbsp;at Relativity Space designs and delivers the complex, high-performance mechanical systems that enable launch-vehicle flight, landing, and reusability. We own the full lifecycle of mission-critical hardware—actuators, latches, and thrust vector control (TVC) systems—while partnering deeply with Guidance, Navigation &amp; Control (GNC), Avionics, and Software to create integrated, operable solutions. Our work spans concept development through design, analysis, test, flight operations, and recovery, always balancing performance, reliability, and build rate.</span></p> <p><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"><strong><span data-contrast="none">About the Role:</span></strong></span></p> <p><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">As a&nbsp;Senior Mechanisms Systems Engineer, you will be the technical and programmatic owner for large, cross-discipline mechanism systems such as thrust vector control. Reporting directly to the Mechanisms team, you will lead system-level design and integration, guiding requirements, architecture, and verification across hardware and software interfaces.</span><br><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">You will:</span></p> <ul> <li style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Define system concepts of operations (CONOPS), requirements, and verification plans</span></li> <li style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Lead integrated product activities across mechanical design, actuators, GNC, avionics, and software teams to ensure seamless system performance</span></li> <li style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Drive development tests, functional verification, and flight readiness by authoring test plans, executing tests, and establishing success criteria</span></li> <li style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Anticipate technical and logistical risks, develop mitigation strategies, and align priorities across engineering disciplines and schedules</span></li> <li style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Coordinate the design, manufacturing, integration, and test schedules for complex mechanism systems</span></li> <li style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Take hands-on ownership of emergent challenges—whether designing test fixtures, specifying sensors, writing test automation, or leading root-cause investigations</span></li> </ul> <p><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">This role occasionally requires travel to test and launch sites and may involve shifted or weekend schedules to support critical milestones</span><br><br></p> <p><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"><strong><span data-contrast="none">About You:</span></strong></span></p> <ul> <li style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical, Aerospace, or related engineering field and 5+ years of relevant experience in design, manufacturing, assembly, or test of complex mechanical or electromechanical systems</span></li> <li style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Proven ability to lead multi-disciplinary projects and deliver on ambitious schedules</span></li> <li style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Strong technical judgment and the ability to communicate complex concepts across engineering and leadership audiences</span></li> <li style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Demonstrated experience balancing requirements, cost, and schedule while driving system integration and verification</span></li> </ul> <p><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"><strong><span data-contrast="none">Nice to haves but not required:&nbsp;</span></strong><span data-ccp-props="{&quot;134233117&quot;:true,&quot;134233118&quot;:true,&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559740&quot;:240}">&nbsp;</span></span></p> <ul> <li style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Background in actuator systems, flight mechanisms, or thrust vector control</span></li> <li style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Experience with motor-control tuning and model-based design using MATLAB/Simulink</span></li> <li style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Experience with integrated hardware/software testing and verification</span></li> <li><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Familiarity with reusability and rapid-iteration development environments</span></li> </ul><div class="content-pay-transparency"><div class="pay-input"><div class="description"><p><span style="font-size: 14px;">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.</span><br><br><span style="font-size: 14px;">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!&nbsp;To see some of the benefits &amp; perks we offer, please visit <a href="https://px.sequoia.com/relativityspace&quot;&gt;here.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="title">Hiring Range:</div><div class="pay-range"><span>$132,000</span><span class="divider">&mdash;</span><span>$18

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