Sr Design Criteria Engineer

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:

Relativity’s Integrated Performance teams ensure that our products work across all systems and disciplines, from trajectory design to aerodynamics to reliability analysis and beyond. Our groups size the Terran R rocket, design its missions for customer success, reliability, and reusability, and ensure that every system on the rocket and ground is engineered correctly for the demanding environments of launch and entry. Recently, we completed the preliminary design and analysis of Terran R including Relativity’s first-ever work on launch vehicle reusability, spanning advanced trajectory simulations, wind tunnel testing, and structures analysis, among many other projects.

As a Design Criteria Engineer, you will be responsible for identifying ways to improve emerging and existing designs and ensure that hardware and concepts of operation meet or exceed requirements. In short, you’ll be the glue between our analysis, test, certification, and design teams, helping to connect the technical dots and solve problems across our vehicle programs. To be successful in this role, you must be able to synthesize productivity for the program from the myriads of abstract problems and constraints facing an in-development launch vehicle. This will require an element of leadership and interfacing between teams.

About the Role:

• Engage with vehicle design and partner teams (Integrated Performance, Test, Launch, Materials, NDE, Manufacturing, Supply Chain) to drive optimized designs while shepherding them through the design review process, verification testing, and part release

• Collaborate with responsible engineers throughout the entire design process, ensuring design criteria are properly considered in the development of hardware

• Own and lead Design Criteria Reviews with design teams and responsible engineers

• Provide guidance and approval of qualification and acceptance test campaigns in preparation for flight

• Build, modify, or eliminate engineering tools, process, and standards to support an efficient, product-focused culture for Terran R

About You:

• An undergraduate degree in engineering or related field and 5+ years relevant experience

• Demonstrated experience with verification and qualification of aerospace structures

• Knowledge of industry standards and their applicable requirements for structures, pressurize hardware, liquid rocket engines, etc. (NASA, Space Force, AIAA)

• Hands-on experience in the design, integration, test, and operation of space vehicles or large complex systems

Nice to haves, but not required:

• History of taking an aerospace product from concept to production

• Experience performing cross-functional engineering and integration for systems subject to complex requirements

• Experience in mechanical engineering design and analysis

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:
$142,000—$181,500 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 [email protected].