Lead, Structural Analysis Engineering (Stress, Fatigue & Damage Tolerance)

The role

You will provide technical leadership for the structural integrity, strength, durability, and life management of flight hardware. You will oversee a team of analysts and define structural analysis strategies for the vehicle.

What you will do

• Oversee a team of analysts while maintaining direct technical contribution
• Provide technical mentorship and guidance to structural analysts and engineers
• Collaborate with design, materials, manufacturing, and test teams
• Establish and improve structural analysis standards, best practices, and verification workflows
• Develop automation and analysis tools using Python or MATLAB
• Lead structural analysis activities for major vehicle structures
• Define structural analysis methodologies, requirements, and design margins
• Perform and review static and dynamic stress analyses for metallic and additively manufactured structures
• Develop fatigue life and durability predictions using SN/EN methods and fracture mechanics
• Lead correlation of structural and fatigue analyses with qualification and durability testing

Required qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, or a related discipline
• Experience leading or mentoring a team (either formally or informally)
• 5+ years of experience in structural analysis, fatigue & damage tolerance, or structural life assessment
• Strong understanding of static stress analysis
• Strong understanding of structural mechanics
• Strong understanding of fatigue and fracture mechanics
• Strong understanding of structural failure modes in aerospace hardware
• Proficiency with Nastran
• Proficiency with Abaqus
• Experience using pre/post-processing environments such as Femap
• Proficiency with NASGRO or AFGROW
• Experience converting time-domain or spectral loads into fatigue damage and life predictions

Nice to have

• Master’s or PhD in Mechanical or Aerospace Engineering
• Experience with launch vehicles, reusable aerospace systems, or flight-critical hardware
• Experience with additive manufacturing structural analysis and fatigue characterization
• Familiarity with Elastic-Plastic Fracture Mechanics (EPFM)
• Experience correlating structural, fatigue, or fracture predictions with test or flight data
• Prior experience defining structural design allowables or durability standards for aerospace systems

Benefits

• Competitive salary and equity
• Generous PTO and sick leave policy
• Parental leave
• Annual learning and development stipend

About the company

Relativity Space is building rockets to serve today’s needs and tomorrow’s breakthroughs. The company is developing the Terran R vehicle to deliver customer payloads to orbit.