Principal Mechanical Design & Analysis Engineer, Tooling Long Beach, California

Principal Mechanical Design & Analysis Engineer, Tooling

Long Beach, California

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. 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. You’ll collaborate across teams, shape decisions, and see your work come to life in record time. The most meaningful work of your career is waiting—join us.

About the Team

The Tooling and Factory Automation team sits at the intersection of design, manufacturing, and automation, making everything from large‑scale structural fixtures to small tools that directly enable Terran R’s production. As a design group embedded within the manufacturing organization, we work closely with internal partners to understand root problems, propose solutions, and deliver hardware that helps build faster, scale smarter, and work better. We also lead Relativity’s growing factory automation efforts—critical for scaling production at existing and future facilities.

About the Role

The Mechanical Design Engineers are responsible for designing and developing tools and factory automation equipment that support manufacturing. The team works closely with Design, Manufacturing, and Integration Engineering to turn top‑level requirements and concepts into functional, delivered equipment, bringing a high level of innovation and ingenuity into a highly automated production facility.

• Develop high‑quality development and production tooling and automation solutions for the Terran vehicle and Aeon engine programs.
• Integrate concepts and principles of mechanical design and analysis across multiple projects in a fast‑paced environment.
• Apply design and drafting standards (ASME Y14.5) to create tooling drawing definitions.
• Handle a wide range of technical problems and work with all types of material handling, assembly fixtures, off‑loaders, rotisseries, test fixtures, structural weldments, environmental chambers, and custom machines.
• Collaborate closely with component designers, manufacturing engineers, and integration engineering to achieve cradle‑to‑grave metrics (safety, cost, quality, cycle time, delivery, reliability, life, and maintenance/refurbishment).
• Manage projects, including vendor selection, fabrication, inspection, equipment installation, and commissioning of tooling.

About You

• Bachelor of Science in manufacturing engineering, mechanical engineering, or equivalent.
• 15+ years of experience designing, building, and commissioning tooling and fixtures for manufacturing, assembly, and test.
• Experience using CAD and FEA‑based analysis software (NX and ANSYS Workbench preferred) for structural applications.
• Experience in full‑cycle project completion.
• Experience in strategic buildout and project management of tooling supporting production.

Nice to Have

• Strong expertise in design for manufacturability and design for assembly, including taking products from prototype design to production.
• Solid understanding of common manufacturing materials, GD&T, and tolerance/stack‑up analysis.
• Solid understanding of common manufacturing processes and machines (mills, lathes, welding, sheet‑metal bending, lifting/rigging, assembly, inspection, etc.).
• Experience with custom machine design (motors, actuators, linear rails, pneumatics, bearings, etc.).

Compensation is based on experience, qualifications, and other job‑related factors. The total rewards package includes competitive salary, equity, generous PTO and sick leave, parental leave, an annual learning and development stipend, and more.

Hiring Range

$196,000 – $253,000 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.