Director, Hardware Engineering

Director, Hardware Engineering

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. 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 Avionics team is responsible for the full lifecycle of Terran R's nervous system, designing, building, testing, installing, and operating the hardware that connects and controls every major electrical system on the vehicle and ground. The team leverages close partnership between avionics design, manufacturing, and test to enable rapid iteration and feedback loops. Engineers are deeply embedded into other functions within Relativity, working closely with propulsion, GNC, fluids, and stage engineering teams to ensure seamless integration and operation. Now is a unique time to join: you'll get to help shape Terran R's fundamental avionics architecture and be given a high degree of ownership on components that will fly.

About the Role:

As the Director of Avionics Hardware Development, you will lead the ground-up development of cutting edge electronics and mechanical hardware for Relativity's newest launch vehicle, Terran R. You will lead a team of engineers and managers pushing the limits of new technologies supporting of a highly reliable system that must survive the harsh environments of spaceflight.

You will lead the teams designing and developing the full set of avionics hardware including:

• Electronics Hardware: PCBA design including power electronics, digital electronics, mixed signal electronics, and RF design
• Mechanical Hardware: enclosures, trays, isolators, brackets, and thermal management systems
• Integration: harnessing, vehicle-level packaging, system bring-up

You will lead a team of engineers and engineering managers across multiple disciplines to advance avionics hardware through the full product lifecycle including requirements and system architecture definition, detailed design, development testing, introduction into manufacturing, and integrated test & operations. You will work closely with partner teams across the engineering, manufacturing, test, and operations organizations to develop a cohesive avionics system supporting all flight systems. To be successful in the role you must be comfortable working as a technical leader driving a fast-paced development program where your strategy and decision making are key to our program success. As a leader of leaders, you will also be expected to develop the skills of leaders under you.

About You:

• Bachelors degree in electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, aerospace engineering, or a related field
• 10+ years of experience developing electrical and mechanical hardware for mission-critical applications in harsh environments such as aviation, space, or robotics
• 7+ years of experience leading engineering teams
• Experience leading and developing engineering leaders
• Familiarity with driving hardware development through the full product lifecycle including design, manufacturing, test, and operations

Nice to haves but not required:

• Experience with electrical CAD tools such as Altium and mechanical CAD tools such as NX
• Experience with embedded software development
• Experience with environmental test equipment such as thermal chambers, shaker tables, and TVAC chambers
• Experience with design and test for EMC and radiation effects
• Familiarity with electrical, mechanical, and thermal analysis techniques and tools

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: $245,000 - $367,000 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.

If you need a reasonable accommodation, please contact us at View email address on click.appcast.io.