Terran R rocket render
Relativity Space Logo

Relativity Space

Director, Build Reliability Engineering

Reposted 6 Days Ago
Be an Early Applicant
Easy Apply
In-Office
Long Beach, CA
195K-269K Annually
Expert/Leader
Easy Apply
In-Office
Long Beach, CA
195K-269K Annually
Expert/Leader
The Director of Build Reliability Engineering will define and implement reliability strategies aligned with business objectives, manage failure analysis, and oversee qualification testing to enhance product reliability.
The summary above was generated by AI

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 Reliability team at Relativity Space ensures quality is built into every stage of the Terran R design and production process, embedding reliability from the very beginning. The team works directly with design, manufacturing, test, and launch teams to stay close to the hardware, understand constraints, and proactively shape decisions. As the program moves from development into production and scaled operations, this is the time to establish the right processes, controls, and inspections without slowing progress. The team plays a key role in balancing risk, fostering a culture of ownership, and making sure speed never comes at the cost of reliability. Success means creating a quality system that scales with the Terran R program and Relativity as a whole.

About the Role:

  • Define the overarching reliability vision and strategy, aligning build-quality objectives with broader business outcomes and product roadmaps
  • Design the organizational structure, talent pipeline, and succession strategy for Build Reliability as the company scales, fostering ownership, technical rigor, and data-driven decision-making.
  • Manage complex failure analysis using Fault Tree process for critical manufacturing and field failures, ensuring long-term corrective and preventive actions (CAPA) are validated to prevent recurrence.
  • Integrate Failure Mode and Effects Analysis (FMEA) and predictive modeling into early-stage designs to identify risks before production begins.
  • Partner with NPI (New Product Introduction), Supply Chain, and Operations to resolve reliability issues and influence supplier quality.
  • Define and own the reliability KPI framework such as Mean Time Between Failures (MTBF), Escapes to next operations and/or first-pass yield to provide actionable insights to executive leadership.
  • Oversee rigorous qualification testing, including Accelerated Life Testing (ALT) and environmental stress screening, to validate product lifespan and reliability targets.
  • Own major risk escalation and resolution as final accountability and trade-off authority, guiding disciplined problem solving (e.g., 8D) and ensuring rapid recovery on quality or capacity issues. 

About You:

  • Bachelor’s degree in Engineering (Mechanical, Aerospace, Industrial, or a related technical field)
  • 10+ years of experience in Supplier Industrialization, Supplier Development, or Manufacturing Engineering, ideally within the aerospace or a high-reliability/safety-critical industry with demonstrated ownership of complex, cross-functional systems at scale
  • 5+ years of direct people management experience, including coaching, mentorship, and performance management of an engineering team
  • Proven ability to influence senior leaders and peers across Engineering, Operations, and Supply Chain without direct authority
  • Expert knowledge of quality systems (AS9100/ISO 9001) and core quality tools (APQP, PPAP, FAIRs, PFMEA, Control Plans), with a proven ability to influence the implementation and compliance of key quality initiatives.
  • Demonstrated capability to build processes from the ground up and successfully deploy them across diverse teams.
  • Willingness to travel up to 50% of the work week when needed.  

Nice to haves but not required:  

  • Master’s degree in Engineering (Mechanical, Aerospace, Industrial, or a related technical field).
  • Professional certification such as Six Sigma Black Belt, ASQ Certified Manager of Quality/Organizational Excellence (CMQ/OE), or PMP.
  • Familiarity with high-volume inspection methods and data-driven acceptance methods.
  • Strong knowledge of enterprise applications (i.e., PLM, ERP, MES) and proficient in data analysis. 
  • Comfortable operating in high ambiguity, setting direction where precedent or data is incomplete. 

At Relativity Space, we are committed to transparency and fairness in our compensation practices. Actual compensation will be determined based on experience, qualifications, and other job-related factors.
Compensation is only one part of our total rewards package. Relativity Space offers competitive salary and equity, a generous PTO and sick leave policy, parental leave, an annual learning and development stipend, and more! To see some of the benefits & perks we offer, please visit here.

Hiring Range:
$195,000$268,500 USD

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.

If you need a reasonable accommodation, please contact us at [email protected].


Top Skills

Apqp
As9100
Control Plans
Erp
Fairs
Iso 9001
Mes
Pfmea
Plm
Ppap

Similar Jobs at Relativity Space

6 Hours Ago
Easy Apply
In-Office
Long Beach, CA, USA
Easy Apply
245K-337K Annually
Senior level
245K-337K Annually
Senior level
Aerospace • Hardware • Robotics • Software • Manufacturing
The Director of Data & AI will lead strategies for data engineering, machine learning, and AI integration to enhance operations and automation for rocket manufacturing and launches.
Top Skills: AIAWSData EngineeringData ModelingDockerEtl PipelinesGCPKafkaKubernetesMachine LearningNoSQLSparkSQL
6 Hours Ago
Easy Apply
In-Office
Long Beach, CA, USA
Easy Apply
154K-211K Annually
Senior level
154K-211K Annually
Senior level
Aerospace • Hardware • Robotics • Software • Manufacturing
Design and maintain controller processes for safety-critical hardware, focusing on fast, reliable binaries and efficient inter-process communication.
Top Skills: C++IpcMemory ManagementRustTcp
Yesterday
Easy Apply
In-Office
Long Beach, CA, USA
Easy Apply
132K-182K Annually
Senior level
132K-182K Annually
Senior level
Aerospace • Hardware • Robotics • Software • Manufacturing
The Senior Design Engineer will design vehicle structures, manage CAD assemblies, oversee BOM configurations, and improve design processes. A focus on collaboration and effective communication with engineering teams is crucial.
Top Skills: Asme Y14.100Asme Y14.41Asme Y14.5NxTeamcenter

What you need to know about the San Francisco Tech Scene

San Francisco and the surrounding Bay Area attracts more startup funding than any other region in the world. Home to Stanford University and UC Berkeley, leading VC firms and several of the world’s most valuable companies, the Bay Area is the place to go for anyone looking to make it big in the tech industry. That said, San Francisco has a lot to offer beyond technology thanks to a thriving art and music scene, excellent food and a short drive to several of the country’s most beautiful recreational areas.

Key Facts About San Francisco Tech

  • Number of Tech Workers: 365,500; 13.9% of overall workforce (2024 CompTIA survey)
  • Major Tech Employers: Google, Apple, Salesforce, Meta
  • Key Industries: Artificial intelligence, cloud computing, fintech, consumer technology, software
  • Funding Landscape: $50.5 billion in venture capital funding in 2024 (Pitchbook)
  • Notable Investors: Sequoia Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, Bessemer Venture Partners, Greylock Partners, Khosla Ventures, Kleiner Perkins
  • Research Centers and Universities: Stanford University; University of California, Berkeley; University of San Francisco; Santa Clara University; Ames Research Center; Center for AI Safety; California Institute for Regenerative Medicine

Sign up now Access later

Create Free Account

Please log in or sign up to report this job.

Create Free Account