Manufacturing Engineer I, Structures

Relativity Space
Long Beach, CA
On-site

Who this role is best for

A natural match if you have hands-on experience in aerospace manufacturing and a background in process improvement. This role is in Long Beach, California, and emphasizes collaboration across engineering and production teams to build scalable rocket structures.

Best fit for

  • Candidates with hands-on experience in aerospace assembly and a passion for process innovation
    — “Champion process improvements across multiple work centers to improve assembly operations”
  • Candidates who have led or supported complex aerospace product builds with a focus on automation and scale
    — “solving challenges in real time, optimizing for scale, and constantly improving processes”
  • Candidates with a strong foundation in mechanical engineering and a history of working in collaborative, cross-functional environments
    — “Collaborate closely with a diverse team of engineers specializing in design, manufacturing, and reliability”

Things to consider

  • The role requires a candidate to work in a high-pressure environment with tight timelines
    — “high-pressure environment”
  • This position is likely to demand a physical presence on the shop floor for primary structure assembly
    — “Cover the shop floor for a primary structure assembly work center”

How to stand out

  • Highlight your experience in resolving build issues and making risk decisions during complex assembly projects
    — “capable of making risk decisions on a regular basis to disposition issues during build”
  • Emphasize your ability to standardize processes and create detailed work instructions for high-fidelity manufacturing
    — “Create work instructions, specifications, and best practices across multiple high-fidelity processes”
  • Showcase your track record of collaborating with design and manufacturing teams to improve product manufacturability
    — “Excellent interpersonal skills with the ability to interface with engineering and manufacturing groups”
Pace · SteadyCollaboration · HighAutonomy · MediumDecision Impact · Team

Derived from job-description analysis by Serendipath's career intelligence engine.

What success looks like

  • process improvements
  • assembly operations
  • standardization
Typical background
manufacturing engineeringaeronautical engineeringmechanical engineering

Skills & requirements

Required

Manufacturing EngineeringProcess ImprovementDesign For ManufacturingProject Management

Preferred

AutomationMachine LearningAdvanced Technologies

Stack & domain

ManufacturingAeronauticalMechanical EngineeringStaticsMechanics Of MaterialsProcess ImprovementFactory DesignFasteningInterpersonalCommunicationProblem SolvingRisk Decision Making

About the role

Original posting from Relativity Space via Greenhouse

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 Manufacturing team turns design into reality, owning the build of Terran R’s primary structures. This isn’t about turning the same bolt every day; it’s about building the systems to build the rocket. Engineers and technicians work side by side, with deep collaboration and real-time feedback, to shape how we build better and faster. With a manifest and a launch date, it’s up to the team to deliver on Terran R: solving challenges in real time, optimizing for scale, and constantly improving processes. As the vehicle evolves, so will the factory, with opportunities to apply automation, machine learning, and advanced technologies. What we build here sets the blueprint for the future of scaled launch.

About the role:

 Cover the shop floor for a primary structure assembly work center (or multiple), clearing barriers and keeping production moving

Champion process improvements across multiple work centers to improve assembly operations and incorporate feedback and learnings from the first Terran R build

Collaborate closely with a diverse team of engineers specializing in design, manufacturing, and reliability, as well as internal production teams and external vendors, leveraging their collective expertise to drive progress

Create work instructions, specifications, and best practices across multiple high-fidelity processes. Help standardize processes across the manufacturing team.

Provide Design for Manufacturing feedback to structures teams during the development phase and through the first prototype and flight builds

About You:

 Bachelor’s degree in manufacturing, aeronautical, mechanical engineering, or other engineering discipline

1+ years progressive and related experience required

Hands on project history of supporting complicated assembly builds and capable of making risk decisions on a regular basis to disposition issues during build and keep production moving

Excellent interpersonal skills with the ability to interface with engineering and manufacturing groups to understand process constraints and provide design inputs for improved manufacturability

Strong engineering fundamentals in statics, mechanics of materials, process improvement/factory design, fastening and joining, machining

Knowledge of common drilling and trim ops, other manufacturing processes, tools, inspection methods and GD&T

Highly self-motivated and able to prioritize and execute tasks in a high-pressure environment 

Nice to have: 

 Direct experience with drill, trim and fastening operations for aerospace products

New product introduction of an aerospace hardware system into a manufacturing, test, and production system with proven success

Experience in managing projects in a fast-paced environment

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:$90,000—$136,000 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 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.

Source: Relativity Space careers (Greenhouse)

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