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Salary: USD 38.4 - 57.6 / hourly
Relativity Space is building rockets for commercial launch, with the Terran R vehicle designed to deliver payloads to orbit. The Materials and NDE (Non-Destructive Evaluation) team develops, characterizes, and inspects materials and processes across all vehicle components, balancing performance and reliability with cost, quality, and schedule.
In this role, you will own and operate the chemistry and powder characterization test areas, including inert gas fusion (IGF) for O/N/H analysis, spark OES, XRF, and particle size and shape analysis. You will manage the full workflow from sample preparation through reported results. You will author and validate standard-referenced test methods and work instructions for these test areas, establishing calibration, verification, and records schedules compliant with AS9100 and ISO 17025 standards.
You will characterize metal powder for additive manufacturing, including particle size distribution, flow behavior, and morphology analysis. You will perform lot qualification and acceptance testing, covering oxygen pickup and virgin versus reused powder comparison. You will own the chemistry and powder request queue, set and hold commit dates, and escalate when a method or instrument cannot meet deadlines. You will cross-cover the thermal analysis test area with the specialist who leads it.
You will train Specialist I staff and interns on chemistry and powder equipment, and advise engineers on test selection, test purpose, and the capabilities and limitations of given analytical methods for materials evaluation.
REQUIREMENTS:
- AS/BS in Chemistry, Analytical Chemistry, Materials Science, Metallurgy, or related field, or equivalent hands-on experience
- 2–5 years of hands-on lab test operations or materials characterization experience
- Demonstrated depth in analytical chemistry, specifically elemental or compositional analysis on any technique
- Evidence of having written or validated a test method, work instruction, or SOP against a consensus standard such as ASTM, with ability to read a method and set up to it
- Track record of owning a technique or test area rather than executing another person's instructions; demonstrated ability to decide how tests are conducted and stand behind results
- Technical judgment to interpret data, troubleshoot method and equipment problems, and recognize bad results, including rejecting numbers that do not hold up under schedule pressure
NICE TO HAVES:
- IGF or combustion gas analysis for oxygen, nitrogen, and hydrogen (LECO, Bruker, Eltra, or equivalent); spark OES experience, especially calibration, type standardization, or matrix-specific setup; experience commissioning a new analyzer from installation through validated first production use
- Metal powder characterization for additive manufacturing, including powder handling and lot qualification; XRF; thermal analysis (DSC, TGA, dilatometry, laser flash); metallography and SEM sample preparation
- Familiarity with ICP-OES and ICP-MS for trace and full-spectrum chemistry, combustion carbon and sulfur analysis, wet chemistry and gravimetric methods, and organic or contamination analysis
- Aerospace or defense lab experience; AS9100 or ISO 17025 familiarity, especially method validation
