Senior Manufacturing Engineer, Stage Separation- Pneumatic Assembly

Company Overview:  

At Relativity Space, we have two audacious goals: to build the next great commercial launch company with Terran R and to become America’s leading force in additive manufacturing innovation. Both contribute to our long-term vision of creating humanity’s industrial base on Mars, paving the way for interplanetary life to expand the possibilities of the human experience. This journey begins right here on Earth – where we design, build, and fly rockets to deliver customer payloads to orbit. Terran R, our medium-to-heavy lift reusable rocket, fulfills the growing demand for launch capacity, thanks to our iterative approach that accelerates design, testing, and development while minimizing costs. While our groundbreaking research and development in 3D printing pushes the boundaries of large-scale additive manufacturing.

Your journey with us is more than just a job – it’s an opportunity to shape the future of aerospace technology, additive manufacturing, and the human experience alongside a community of passionate, creative individuals. Join us on this extraordinary journey, as we work together to transform our vision into reality.

About the Team:  

The Mechanisms Manufacturing team at Relativity Space is currently in the design release and New Product Introduction phase for Terran R, our next generation, fully re-useable rocket. This team has a wide variety of responsibilities—from determining the most efficient factory floor layout, to developing and implementing complex tooling and processes, and even interfacing with the vehicle engineering team to heavily influence the design of the rocket.  

Overall, this team is critical to the development and initial builds of Terran R. To meet its goals, the team will drive products from design concept through prototyping, initial builds, functional acceptance testing, and successful integration onto the Terran R vehicle. The team will also establish the manufacturing and business practices and processes necessary to move fast while still producing high quality, well understood, products.

About the Role: 

The Mechanisms Manufacturing team is responsible for working alongside the vehicle design and test teams to develop hardware that enables Terran R reusability, such as landing legs, pneumatic separation and release mechanisms, and linear and rotary electromechanical actuators.  In this role, you will advocate for scalable manufacturing in product design trades and reviews, ensuring that manufacturing considerations are integrated early in the design process. You will develop build flow planning, large-scale part logistics, tooling design, conceptualizing & sourcing, analyze build & test data, workcenter capacity modelling and complex assembly work planning and execution. To be successful in this role, you need to be a self-starter that can thrive in ambiguity, identify problems and quickly resolve them, and provide definition to the previously undefined. You should have a commitment to quality and the discipline required to achieve it.

• Responsible for a major mechanized subassembly and its child components from design release through test and successful integration onto the Terran R launch vehicle—lay out the build and test flow to ensure an efficient, high-quality product flow capable of scaling with time. 
• Drive the assembly’s build and test effort through design integration, part sourcing, assembly sequencing, mBOM development, build and test work order creation, and specification authoring. 
• Support workcenter development by considering assembly and test operations, safety, tooling and capital equipment requirements, and company operational goals.
• Provide hands-on support to the shop floor and production personnel, promptly addressing any issues that arise and offering upstream feedback to drive design for manufacturability.
• Foster strong collaborative relationships with design, production, supply chain and quality assurance, facilitating effective communication and coordination to ensure alignment with company objectives and successful execution of manufacturing processes.
• Foster a culture of critical thinking and imaginative problem-solving, constantly challenging the established norms in engineering and manufacturing, and pushing the boundaries to achieve efficient production. 

About You: 

• BS degree in aerospace, mechanical, or manufacturing engineering (or technical equivalent)
• Minimum of 5 years of experience building and testing hardware in a manufacturing environment
• Extensive experience authoring work instructions and/or test procedures to build and validate interdisciplinary mechanical, electrical, and pneumatic assemblies
• Experience partnering with design engineering, manufacturing, and production personnel
• Extensive experience managing and implementing large process and/or quality improvements
• Extensive experience managing large personal scope of ownership
• Experience developing or participating in developing tooling as a manufacturing representative
• Experience with at least 2 of the following:
  • Machining, precision drilling, mechanical fastening, and torquing operations, pneumatic or electromechanical assembly, electrical or pneumatic functional checkouts, integrated testing, tool design and fab, subassembly workcenter development

Nice to haves but not required:  

•    Self-starter that has demonstrated the ability to define and own a process from scratch and roll out that process through adept communication to a diverse team  
•    New product introduction of an aerospace hardware system into a manufacturing, test, and production system with proven success 
•    Working knowledge of rocket subsystems including structures, mechanisms, high pressure gas systems, and/or avionics
•    Strong understanding GD&T and drafting principles
•    Working knowledge of typical manufacturing execution systems and quality management systems
•    Process development, factory layouts, and production line planning
•    Experience in capacity analyses, DFMEA/PFMEA, value stream mapping

Relativity Space offers competitive salary and equity, a generous vacation policy, an annual L&D stipend and more! 

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.