Senior Vehicle Simulation 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 Integrated Performance team owns the holistic view of how Terran R comes together, ensuring that every system on the vehicle and ground is capable of achieving our ambitious objectives. The team works across the full launch system, from trajectory design and aerodynamics to reliability analysis and beyond, with direct influence on all parts of the product lifecycle, from conceptual design to post-flight data review. Beyond analysis, team members engage hands-on with hardware and operations, with the mission and authority to drive meaningful programmatic change. With a unique organizational structure, the integrated performance team spans multiple technical domains and embeds directly with partner teams to solve the hardest multi-disciplinary problems. The team operates with a rare scale: large enough to support complex development, yet small enough that individual contributors have meaningful impact.About the Role:Closely collaborate with key design teams to integrate the latest design data into full simulations of customer missionsDevelop and leverage software tooling to optimize launch and orbital trajectories across key customer missionsLead interdisciplinary design trade analyses to inform critical decisions about the vehicle, mission trajectories, and ConOpsDefine and maintain high-level vehicle and trajectory design requirements to inform the overall design processImplement, maintain, and improve software tooling across a variety of languages, from core simulation capabilities to peripheral analysis utilitiesEstablish and lead cross-functional collaboration with key teams across Vehicle EngineeringAbout You:An undergraduate or graduate degree (BS/MS/PhD) in Engineering, Computer Science, Physics, or a related field2+ years of relevant full-time work experience with demonstrated ability to solve complex problems from first principlesDirect experience on rocketry, space systems, or equally complex hardware systemsStrong proficiency in high-level programming languages (e.g. Python, Julia, MATLAB) and setting up complex simulation processesAbility to complete projects with end-to-end ownership and a high degree of independenceComfortable working in a fast-paced and intense startup environmentNice to haves but not required: Familiarity with launch vehicle trajectory design and optimizationHave previously been a leading contributor on complex multi-disciplinary engineering analysis projectsPrior work in a startup environmentExperience working with advanced software development practices such as Docker, Continuous Integration/Continuous Deployment (CI/CD), and dependency managementAt 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:$148,000—$222,000 USDWe 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 note: Relativity Space does not accept unsolicited resumes, candidate profiles, or referrals from recruitment agencies or search firms. Any unsolicited submission - via email, our website, social media, or directly to an employee - will be deemed the property of Relativity Space, and no fee will be owed absent a current, fully executed agreement with Talent Acquisition that specifically authorizes submissions for the applicable role.