Senior Mission Design and Navigation Engineer

The role

You will perform mission design and trajectory analysis for the 2028 Mars Orbiter mission. You will develop engineering practices, tools, and software requirements to support mission design and flight navigation.

What you will do

• Own mission design and associated trajectory analysis for the 2028 Mars Orbiter mission
• Develop and optimize interplanetary trajectories and Mars orbital trajectories
• Grow into technical ownership of flight navigation, including orbit determination and maneuver analysis
• Define requirements, interfaces, and methods for processing DSN radiometric tracking measurements
• Serve as the primary navigation interface between the Interplanetary Sciences Program and the Deep Space Network
• Develop and maintain mission design and navigation tools, software requirements, architectures, and analysis capabilities
• Act as an authority for Mission Design and Navigation across multiple teams

Required qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Aerospace Engineering, Astronautical/Aeronautical Engineering, Computer Science, Mathematics, Physics, or a similar technical discipline
• 5+ years of related experience
• Experience in spacecraft mission design, astrodynamics, flight navigation, orbit determination, or mission design and navigation software development
• Strong understanding of orbital mechanics, trajectory analysis, and engineering methods used to design and navigate spacecraft missions
• Experience with radiometric navigation and orbital determination
• Ability to work across disciplines and communicate technical decisions, requirements, and tradeoffs
• Experience working with software developers to define requirements and architectures for engineering or mission-critical software systems
• Software development experience in Python, MATLAB, or similar

Nice to have

• Experience with MONTE mission design and navigation software and tools
• Experience supporting interplanetary or deep-space missions
• Experience with the Deep Space Network
• Experience processing or analyzing DSN tracking measurements, including Doppler, Range, and Delta-DOR
• Experience with flight navigation operations, maneuver design and analysis, or orbit determination
• Familiarity with DSN systems, interfaces, documentation, and navigation data products
• Familiarity with software and systems configuration management in a mission-critical environment

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.