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Lead, Materials Characterization Engineer

Long Beach, United States

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 Materials and NDE (Non-Destructive Evaluation) team plays a central role in enabling Terran R to fly, re-fly, and scale: developing, characterizing, and inspecting materials and processes across all parts of the vehicle. From welding and additive manufacturing to advanced composites, the team works at the intersection of innovation and execution, balancing performance and reliability with cost, quality, and schedule. As we move toward first flight and beyond, the challenges become more exciting, offering opportunities to shape how we design and develop for re-use. With ownership across products, systems, and disciplines, engineers gain broad exposure and drive key decisions across design, manufacturing, and operations.

About the Role:

Manage a team of materials characterization engineers, set priorities, provide mentorship and develop career growth paths.
Foster a culture of safety, technical excellence, collaboration and continuous improvement.
Direct the planning, execution and review of material property testing (machining, sample prep, mechanical testing, metallography, SEM, heat treatment, thermal/chemical).
Provide technical guidance on test method development, data interpretation and root cause investigations for partner teams.
Ensure test activities align with Terran-R program needs, aerospace standards and customer/mission requirements.
Partner with M&P, design, manufacturing, quality and production teams to ensure timely and accurate data is delivered.
Communicate results and insights to engineering leadership to drive decision making for material selection and qualification.
Define roadmap for characterization capabilities to support future vehicle and propulsion systems.
Develop budget, staffing plans and resource strategies for the lab.
Represent the characterization function in design reviews, material down-selects and failure investigation.

About You:

Bachelor's degree in Materials Science, Metallurgical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering or related field.
8+ years of experience in materials characterization, with at least 3 years in a leadership or management role.
Strong hands-on knowledge of core materials characterization techniques (machining/sample prep, mechanical testing, SEM, DSC/TGA, metallography, spectroscopy).
Demonstrated experience leading teams, managing schedules and delivering results in a fast-paced environment.
Excellent communication skills, with the ability to translate technical findings into actionable insights.

Nice to haves but not required:

Masters or Ph.D in Materials Science or related discipline.
Prior leadership experience in aerospace, defense or rocket/space industry labs.
Familiarity with materials (aluminum, stainless, Inconel, copper). and processes (additive manufacturing, welding, adhesives, polymers) used in propulsion and structural systems for aerospace applications.
Proven record of developing new test methods and advancing lab capabilities.
Experience with quality systems, standards and compliance (ASTM, AS9100, AWS D17.1, NASA, ISO).

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.

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