Senior Thermal Analyst, Propulsion

Relativity Space • Long Beach, CA

9h

About The Position

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 Propulsion team at Relativity is focused on developing and delivering highly performant and manufacturable engines for Terran R. Engineers are responsible for the entire lifecycle of their parts, from initial design through production to qualification and flight. The team fosters a culture of bottoms-up decision-making, free from technical gatekeeping, where ownership and accountability are key at all levels. But designing engines with a quarter million pounds of thrust is just the beginning. As the flight configuration enters qualification, the team is now exploring modifications for future engines, including thrust upgrades, new cycles, and design for mass production.
About the Role:
Responsible for the thermal analyses on Aeon-R engines to guide design decisions and ensure reliability and performance requirements are met
Responsible for the analysis of 3D-printed engine components, complex mechanical assemblies, and/or the thermal integrity of the fully integrated engine assembly.
Work hand-in-hand with mechanical designers, manufacturing engineers, and junior thermal analysts to arrive at optimal solutions for the engine and vehicle programs
Develop and execute tests to support development and qualification, including hands-on work like test article integration, instrumentation setup, and data processing
Guide the advancement of the Propulsion department’s thermal analysis discipline by development of best practices, standards documents, and the training and mentorship of others

Requirements

• Bachelor's degree in a science, engineering, technology, or mathematics field
• 5+ years of relevant engineering experience
• Experience with Finite Element Analysis
• Experience with computer aided design (CAD) software
• Able to work completely independently, balancing multiple deliverables with competing priority and deadlines
• Experience with defining thermal and fluid instrumentation suites for tests

Nice To Haves

• Experience with Finite Element Analysis using ANSYS products including ANSYS Workbench, ANSYS Classic, and ANSYS Parametric Design Language (APDL), and ANSYS Customization Toolkit (ACT)
• Experience with Siemens NX and Teamcenter
• Familiarity with industry best practices
• Familiarity with aerospace standards, particularly SMC-S-016
• Experience with phase-change heat transfer (boiling and condensation)
• Experience with design of liquid propulsion components and systems
• Experience defining best practices for thermal analyses of varying scope and levels of technical complexity for products throughout the full development cycle

Responsibilities

• Responsible for the thermal analyses on Aeon-R engines to guide design decisions and ensure reliability and performance requirements are met
• Responsible for the analysis of 3D-printed engine components, complex mechanical assemblies, and/or the thermal integrity of the fully integrated engine assembly.
• Work hand-in-hand with mechanical designers, manufacturing engineers, and junior thermal analysts to arrive at optimal solutions for the engine and vehicle programs
• Develop and execute tests to support development and qualification, including hands-on work like test article integration, instrumentation setup, and data processing
• Guide the advancement of the Propulsion department’s thermal analysis discipline by development of best practices, standards documents, and the training and mentorship of others

Benefits

• Relativity Space offers competitive salary and equity, a generous PTO and sick leave policy, parental leave, an annual learning and development stipend, and more!

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Mid Level