Aerodynamics Engineer II full_time

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.

Team:  

The Integrated Performance department at Relativity Space is responsible for ensuring that our rockets will achieve our overall objectives and satisfy stringent customer and government requirements. Our department comprises teams responsible for Flight Sciences, including Aerodynamics, Thermal, Loads, and Dynamics; Integrated Structures Analysis; Guidance, Navigation, and Control & Vehicle Performance (GNCP); Systems Engineering; Mission Reliability; and Product Engineering. We architect and execute analysis, simulation, operations, and test projects for all of Relativity’s hardware and software teams in pursuit of mission success. Overall, this team is critical to the launch success of Terran R!

The Aerodynamics team shapes Relativity’s vehicle products by tackling intricate design challenges inherent to reusable launch vehicles. Drawing on a strong foundation in external and compressible flows, the team addresses a wide spectrum of aerodynamic challenges across all flight phases. Leveraging computational fluid dynamics (CFD), wind tunnel testing, reduced order modeling, and flight data, we take a proactive approach to supporting cross-disciplinary design initiatives. Our collaboration with hardware engineers further enables us to overcome design and integration hurdles, ensuring a seamless and efficient development process from concept and through launch.

What you’ll do: 

As an Aerodynamics Engineer II, you will play a key role in shaping Relativity’s vehicle products by helping to solve interdisciplinary design challenges involving Aerodynamics. Your experience will enable you to proactively identify and execute analyses that support cross-discipline design efforts and analysis teams. Your foundation in external and compressible flows will be applied to a variety of Aerodynamic tasks including wind tunnel testing, computational fluid dynamics (CFD), and working with hardware engineers to solve design and integration challenges.

Here are some examples of projects you could be working on:

• Contribute to the planning and execution of wind tunnel test campaigns
• Construct aerodynamic databases from CFD, wind tunnel, and empirical models (e.g., DATCOM)
• Utilize and execute CFD analyses that supports component design and database development
• Collaborate with hardware engineers to size and shape aero surfaces that meet design requirements
• Specify test and flight instrumentation including sensor type, sampling requirements, and locations

Success in this role requires self-motivation, adaptability, and the ability to contribute significantly to a fast-paced, integrated vehicle program. On a weekly basis, you will be performing analysis, aiding in the development of software tools, and supporting design teams. You will also use your strong organizational skills to properly manage the documentation and communication of your actions, recommendations, and decisions.

What you need to know:  

• A graduate degree in engineering or related field and 3+ years relevant experience
• Expertise in aerodynamic fundamentals, including external and compressible flows
• Experience solving cross-discipline design problems on integrated vehicles
• Proficiency in Python and experience with CFD tools

Nice to haves but not required:  

• Relevant experience across a complete program lifecycle
• Experience with unsteady aerodynamic flow fields (buffet) including empirical methods and test data

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.

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