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 Interplanetary Sciences Program was established to expand access to scientific exploration across our solar system. Its mission is to make planetary research faster, more affordable, and more capable than ever before by rethinking how science missions are designed, built, and operated. The program aims to enable scientists to send instruments to distant worlds without decades of development or prohibitive costs. By creating a sustainable model for interplanetary exploration, we are transforming space science from an occasional event into a continuous process of discovery that accelerates knowledge, broadens participation, and inspires the next generation of explorers.
About the Role:
- Own the Delay Tolerant Networking (DTN) and Bundle Protocol implementation for a space-based data center, making interplanetary internet real and operational — designing, building, and validating the primary data transfer pathway that moves science data from instruments through onboard processing and out over deep-space communication links
- Design and implement the full Bundle Protocol stack — custody transfer, fragmentation, and assured delivery — with the rigor that comes from knowing a protocol bug over a Mars link means data that may never be recovered
- Build DTN routing logic integrated with the payload scheduler, orchestrating data movement across science collection windows, downlink passes, and UHF relay contacts, enabling semi-autonomous scheduling and routing across all onboard sources and communication links
- Own the payload network stack from OSI layers 4 through 7, including network management and monitoring software, providing end-to-end data flow validation from instrument acquisition through NAS storage, onboard processing, and downlink
- Integrate with partner DTN development groups and the broader deep-space networking community, bridging open-source DTN implementations with mission-specific requirements and operational constraints
About You:
- MS + 5 years or PhD + 3 years in networking, distributed systems, or a related field, with 8+ years of total software experience
- Deep experience with network protocol design and implementation — you've built or substantially modified protocol stacks, not just configured them
- Strong systems programming skills in C and/or Rust, with experience writing concurrent and distributed systems software
- Solid understanding of Linux networking internals and protocol state machine design, with attention to formal correctness
- Demonstrated ability to analyze and optimize network performance — throughput, latency, and reliability under constrained conditions
Nice to haves but not required:
- Direct experience with Delay Tolerant Networking, Bundle Protocol (RFC 9171), or store-and-forward networking over disruption-tolerant links
- Familiarity with open-source DTN implementations such as ION, HDTN, or µD3TN
- Experience with contact graph routing or other DTN routing algorithms
- Knowledge of CCSDS networking standards and deep-space communication link characteristics — light-time delay, intermittent contacts, eclipse periods
- Background in embedded or constrained-environment software architecture where resources and link availability cannot be taken for granted
- Experience with simulation-based testing of network protocols under disruption, delay, and loss conditions
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.
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].
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