Senior Vehicle Fluids Engineer (Cert/Customer)

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 Stage Fluids team is responsible for the design and delivery of propellant, pressurant, pneumatics, and other fluid systems that turn structures into functioning rockets! The team has full ownership across design, production, test, and flight, maintaining a holistic view of Terran R, focused not on isolated parts but integrated functionality. Working on-site at the factory means you’re never far from the hardware, enabling rapid iteration and tight feedback loops across design and manufacturing. You won’t just be handed requirements: you’ll be expected to ask the right questions, collaborate with partners across the company, and ultimately find the best solutions for Terran R.

About the Role:

- As a Vehicle Fluids Product Certification Responsible Engineer, you will guide the fluid system architecture and function for a vehicle product line, ensuring the system meets customer and regulatory requirements from early mission definition through vehicle operations and certification.

- You will apply strong systems engineering and technical judgment to translate customer requirements into practical fluid system architectures, guide cross-functional hardware development, and resolve complex system-level problems. You will work closely with engineering, operations, manufacturing, customers, and regulatory stakeholders to make technical decisions and ensure the fluid systems at the integrated vehicle level perform as intended.

- Own the integrated stage-level fluid architecture and schematics for customer-specific missions, ensuring seamless functionality across all propellant, pressurant, and pneumatic subsystems. Lead cross-functional interface definitions and negotiations with external teams (USSF/Customer/NSSL) to ensure seamless system integration and compliance with requirements.

- Lead early development of system-level trades, concepts, and proposals to develop hardware for unique customer requirements.

- Define development, qualification, and acceptance testing scopes to meet stakeholder requirements and address customer-defined risk prior to vehicle-level integrated testing. Participate in Concept of Operations (CONOPS) development and review operational and test data to take ultimate ownership of the successful operational philosophy and testing execution of the fluid systems at the integrated vehicle level.

About You:

- Bachelor’s degree (Mechanical Engineering or relevant) 5+ years of experience working with complex aerospace systems

- Familiarity with fluid system architecture, analysis, operations and application of engineering fundamentals in system fluids design

- Direct experience designing, analyzing, testing, or operating launch vehicle or spacecraft fluid or propulsion systems

- Experience with certification of a vehicle or spacecraft system for external stakeholders

Nice to haves but not required:

- Experience with certification of a vehicle system for NSSL and/or USSF certification.

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:
$132,000 — $198,000 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 accommodations@relativityspace.com .

Please 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.