Sr Principal Flight Sciences Engineer

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.

About the Team:

Relativity’s Integrated Performance teams ensure that our products work across all systems and disciplines, from trajectory design to aerodynamics to reliability analysis and beyond. Our groups size the Terran R rocket, design its missions for customer success, reliability, and reusability, and ensure that every system on the rocket and ground is engineered correctly for the demanding environments of launch, entry, and landing.

About the Role:

As Sr. Principal Integrated Performance Engineer, you will drive the technical direction of Relativity’s products across the domains of Flight Sciences, GNC, and Performance. You will play a key role in shaping Relativity’s vehicle products and advanced technical analyses, including the Terran R launch system and supporting simulation tools and methods. In short, you’ll work on our hardest problems with our best people, leveraging a high degree of technical authority.

You will collaborate with our Propulsion, Stage, Avionics, Flight Software, and Program Management teams to deliver diverse Integrated Performance projects on time, while meeting our technical requirements. A high degree of autonomy along with an ability to prioritize work in our fast-paced environment is required. Additionally, you will help build an outstanding vehicle engineering organization at the cutting edge of commercial aerospace.

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

• Develop and execute technical analyses and tests to solve novel challenges in vehicle architecture, flight sciences, and GNC
• Lead complex technical trades around vehicle performance and architecture with support from hardware, software, operations, and analysis teams. For example, perform necessary trades and analysis for Aero, Thermal, Stage Fluids, and GNC to optimize vehicle designs for ascent, re-entry, and re-use
• Direct and mentor other team members, consultants, and contractors in supporting analysis and modeling activities

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 significant Flight Sciences & Vehicle Performance experience as well as a proven track record completing projects successfully in a highly collaborative environment.

On a weekly basis, you will be performing analysis, driving technical projects with other engineering teams and company leadership, and mentoring your teammates. You will also use your strong organizational skills to properly manage the documentation and communication of your actions, recommendations, and decisions.

About You:

• A graduate degree in engineering or related field and 15+ years relevant experience
• Industry-leading expertise in reusable launch vehicle flight sciences & performance
• Experience in a lead technical role from concept through flight on at least one entry vehicle program, including ownership of entry concepts of operations (conops)
• Experience solving complex problems on integrated vehicles
• Proficiency in an engineering scripting language like Python or Matlab
• Experience structuring, negotiating, executing, and delivering complex analyses and simulations for software, hardware, and certification customers

Nice to haves but not required:

• 20+ years relevant experience across 3 or more program lifecycles
• Experience in diverse technical leadership roles, e.g. Aero and GNC
• Experience managing and developing simulation toolsets and workflows

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.

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