Senior Vehicle Systems 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:

The Systems Engineering team ensures that Terran R comes together as a cohesive, high-performing, and scalable system. Within the department, one team focuses on building tools and processes to manage requirements, track decisions, and identify and mitigate risk - enabling faster, more informed development across the program. Engineers work across domains to understand complex problems, identify solutions, and implement them – all with deep technical knowledge, not just documentation. The other team focuses on the vehicle itself, working across teams to ensure all subsystems of Terran R function together as intended, burning down technical risk, and driving informed decisions at every stage of the vehicle lifecycle. Engineers are empowered to lead high-impact efforts, from major test campaigns to console operations during launch, and are trusted to drive improvements across fluids, structures, avionics, and more. Regardless of which team you’re on, you’ll be part of a high-visibility, high-impact department at a pivotal moment in the program, where decisions made today on trades, architecture, and process will shape not just the first launch, but the long-term trajectory of Relativity.

About the Role:

As a Senior Systems Engineer, you will collaborate with team members across the organization while contributing to the development of Relativity’s engineering processes and tools to enable the design, development, certification, and flight of the Terran R launch system.

Projects and responsibilities include the following:

• Develop the Systems Engineering tools and methodology roadmap, helping align the needs of various disciplines and the overall project from development to launch
• Build, continuously improve, or eliminate engineering processes to support an efficient, product-focused culture
• Prototype, implement, and rollout processes, tools, and automation that enable better design and test collaboration across the company
• Manage the vehicle design and development processes from beginning to end, ranging from working with department leaders on setting expectations, making progress visible, and ensuring the processes are effective
• Provide engineering expertise to solve technical problems at all levels.

As a Senior level Systems Engineer, you will work collaboratively within the Systems Engineering team to achieve the above responsibilities, while working autonomously on certain aspects of them.

To be successful in this role, you should be self-motivated, adaptable, and able to contribute significantly to a fast-paced integrated vehicle program. You should also be able to resolve ambiguity and drive projects to completion. Ideally, you have experience in: Systems Engineering, Verification and Validation (V&V), and Requirement Management experience, Vehicle Configuration Management, Launch Vehicle certification as well as a proven track record completing projects successfully in a highly collaborative environment.

On a weekly basis, you will be developing processes and tools, supporting design teams, and working collaboratively with IT and DevOps. You will also use your strong organizational skills to properly manage the documentation and communication of your actions, recommendations, and decisions.

About You: 

• Senior: An undergraduate degree in engineering or related field 
• 5+ years relevant experience
• Experience performing cross-functional engineering and integration for complex systems
• Experience solving difficult problems with multiple stakeholders in a fast-paced environment
• Proven track record of contributing to project completion
• Experience workflows and automation within Jira or equivalent 
• Experience writing automation scripts in Python or other languages
• Experience applying expertise in modern systems engineering practices and tools
• Experience applying written and oral communication skills

Nice to haves, but not required:

• Graduate degree (MS/PhD) in engineering or related field and 10+ years of experience
• Hands-on experience in the design, integration, test, and operation of complex systems
• History of taking complex products from concept to production
• Strong desire to learn new subjects to solve difficult and often ambiguous challenges
• Experience with Model Based Systems Engineering (MB

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.