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Salary: USD 143,000 - 215,000 / annual
Relativity Space is building rockets to serve today's needs and tomorrow's breakthroughs. The Terran R vehicle will deliver customer payloads to orbit, meeting growing demand for launch capacity. This Staff Build Reliability Engineer role focuses on precision cleaning, fluid system cleanliness, contamination control, and special processes critical to hardware quality and reliability.
You will serve as the company-wide technical authority for precision cleaning and contamination control, establishing standards and technical strategy from piece-part manufacturing through vehicle integration, testing, and launch. Key responsibilities include:
• Establish and own the special process control framework, including process qualification, equipment validation, statistical process control, inspection requirements, auditing, and governance to ensure consistent execution and compliance with hardware cleanliness requirements across all production stages.
• Lead development, industrialization, and scaling of precision clean-line capabilities from early development through rate production, making critical decisions around process architecture, equipment selection, make-versus-buy strategy, factory integration, and production readiness.
• Define company-wide engineering specifications, cleanliness acceptance criteria, inspection methods, and technician training and certification standards to ensure contamination control and hardware quality throughout manufacturing, assembly, integration, testing, and launch operations.
• Drive resolution of complex cleanliness, contamination, and special-process challenges, leading root cause investigations, corrective actions, and technical risk reduction efforts across Design, Manufacturing, Integration, Test, Quality, and Production teams.
• Act as a senior technical leader across the organization, influencing engineering and manufacturing decisions, identifying and mitigating build reliability risks, and mentoring engineers and technicians.
Relativity emphasizes autonomy, ownership, and impact at every level. You'll collaborate across teams, shape decisions, and see your work come to life in record time. This is an opportunity to leave your mark on the product, process, and culture at a pivotal moment when Terran R is tangible and picking up momentum.
**Requirements:**
• Bachelor's degree in Chemical Engineering, Materials Science, Mechanical Engineering, or related technical discipline, with 8+ years of progressive process engineering experience in aerospace, high-reliability manufacturing, or similarly complex production environment.
• 5+ years of direct experience developing, owning, or scaling precision cleaning, fluid system cleaning, clean-line, contamination control, or comparable aerospace special processes.
• Deep expertise in special process control, including process qualification, validation, contamination prevention, statistical process control, inspection methodology, process capability, and continuous improvement.
• Demonstrated experience establishing and enforcing technical standards, cleanliness requirements, and quality controls across multiple stages of hardware manufacturing, assembly, integration, and testing.
• Proven ability to independently resolve complex, cross-functional technical challenges, lead failure investigations, identify systemic quality risks, and implement corrective actions that improve hardware reliability and manufacturing consistency.
• Strong technical leadership and communication skills, with demonstrated ability to influence engineering and manufacturing decisions, establish accountability across teams, and challenge processes or decisions when necessary to protect hardware quality and mission success.
**Nice to Haves:**
• M.S. or Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering, Materials Science, or related technical discipline.
• Experience establishing precision cleaning, contamination control, or special-process capabilities for propulsion systems, fluid systems, or flight hardware.
• Familiarity with IEST-STD-CC1246 or other aerospace cleanliness, contamination control, and quality standards.
• Experience developing and implementing enterprise-wide special process governance, qualification, or certification programs.
• Experience supporting hardware cleanliness and contamination control requirements from component manufacturing through vehicle assembly, integration, testing, and launch operations.
