Skip to content

Systems & Test

Stage Development Engineer II, Vehicle Build

Relativity Space logoRelativity Space$109,000–$163,000/yrLong Beach, CaliforniaPosted 4mo ago

About the job

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 Systems Engineering team ensures that Terran R comes together as a cohesive, high-performing, and scalable system.

Within the department, one team focuses on building tools and processes to manage requirements, track decisions, and identify and mitigate risk - enabling faster, more informed development across the program. Engineers work across domains to understand complex problems, identify solutions, and implement them – all with deep technical knowledge, not just documentation.

The other team focuses on the vehicle itself, working across teams to ensure all subsystems of Terran R function together as intended, burning down technical risk, and driving informed decisions at every stage of the vehicle lifecycle.

Engineers are empowered to lead high-impact efforts, from major test campaigns to console operations during launch, and are trusted to drive improvements across fluids, structures, avionics, and more.

Regardless of which team you’re on, you’ll be part of a high-visibility, high-impact department at a pivotal moment in the program, where decisions made today on trades, architecture, and process will shape not just the first launch, but the long-term trajectory of Relativity. ## About the Role The Vehicle Build team at Relativity Space is a small, dynamic group within the Vehicle Engineering organization, specializing in cross-functional vehicle development, designing for operability, defining Concept of Operations for downstream work centers, and determining vehicle verification activities.

Our team acts as the engineering focal point throughout the vehicle's lifecycle, ensuring consistency in the vehicle build process. We manage upstream and downstream impacts, excel at addressing complex problems, and solving new build challenges. Our group solves for balance between performance, launch/build rate, and reliability.

This involves determining requirements, verification events, tools, guidance, and processes, all with operability at the forefront. On this team, you'll collaborate with every function across the company to help design, build, test, fly, recover, and reuse Terran R.

You will: - Balance technical, cost, and schedule constraints; weighing options, investigating scenarios, and proposing solutions - Owning the scope of verification activities for Integration, test, and launch site checkouts - Follow the vehicle through its life cycle to ensure consistency in quality and process - Drive systems through qualification, acceptance, and hotfire test campaigns by writing/reviewing test objectives, test matrices, and test plans - Enable manufacturing teams to scale by owning specific off-nominal work scope - Ability to travel to our test & launch sites and may additionally require shifted schedules or weekend work for critical milestones ## About You - Bachelor’s degree in engineering or related field and 2+ years of relevant experience - Problem-solving skills and the ability to manage multiple priorities in a fast-paced environment - Technical aptitude and basic understanding of all functional disciplines (Mechanical, Fluids, and Avionics) Nice to haves but not required: - Graduate degree in engineering or related field - Experience with aerospace ERP systems and writing technical planning - Proven experience in design, manufacturing, assembly, and testing of complex aerospace systems - Excellent communication skills with the ability to distill complex technical problems into simple concepts for a broader audience - Leadership or coordination experience in a multidisciplinary engineering project and demonstrated ability to lead by influence and collaborate with technical owners 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 $109,000 - $163,000 USD

From Relativity Space's job posting, checked 7 Nov 2026. The employer's own page is the final word on requirements and availability.

Selected agencies hiring now

These agencies and apps pay SpaceJobs.Now a referral fee when someone we introduce is placed or signs up. It costs you nothing and never changes your pay. Employers' own jobs below keep their own order.

Sponsored

Sponsored jobs from job networks, which pay SpaceJobs.Now when you click one.

Free tools for this application: check your resume against this job, answer the application's questions or see every free tool.

New systems engineering, integration and test jobs in space in California, by email

One email a week with the newest ones, straight from the employers' own careers sites, with the pay each posting states. Free, stop anytime.

About Relativity Space

Builds reusable rockets that make access to space more reliable and routine.

Pay on its listings: 99.7% of its open jobs state an hourly rate

How it pays: Paid as an employee on Relativity Space's own payroll (salaried or hourly, as each posting states).

More open jobs at Relativity Space

More systems engineering, integration and test jobs in space

A systems, integration or test engineer?

One profile for every employer here. Space companies and their recruiters ask us for people with a specific degree, clearance, specialty or location: add yours once, and when a job fits, we introduce you, only with your yes. Free.

Create my profile

Relativity Space openings, sent to you weekly

Each week we send the newest postings from Relativity Space's own careers site, along with similar openings at other space employers. It costs nothing and you can stop anytime.