Staff Quality Engineer

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 Launch team operates at the intersection of every major aspect of Terran R, from stages and payloads to ground systems, launch, landing, and refurbishment. The Cape is the only place where you see it all come together, offering a level of exposure and responsibility unmatched elsewhere in the program. This is where first flights happen, where history is built on top of history, and where the scale of what's underway is unlike anything in modern aerospace. The mission stays the same, but the work evolves with every milestone: from first launch to reuse, high-cadence operations, and beyond. If you're looking to define what's next in space launch and write a new playbook, not just repeat what’s already been done, this is where it happens.

About the Role:

• Provide technical leadership and strategic direction for quality engineering activities across Test and Launch, establishing project goals, priorities, risk-based approaches, and completion criteria for complex and high-impact initiatives.

• Own and drive improvements to in-process build verification, issue ticket workflows, as-built verification, and non-conformance management, ensuring quality processes scale with program and operational needs.

• Develop, implement, and continuously improve quality processes by reviewing work instructions, establishing corrective action strategies, and creating standardized rework and repair documentation to support Test and Launch operations.

• Serve as a technical quality leader and key partner to the AS9100 Quality Management System (QMS) team, helping develop, implement, and maintain policies, procedures, and quality standards relevant to Test and Launch.

• Lead cross-functional resolution of complex and systemic quality issues by partnering with Test and Launch, Manufacturing, Hardware Responsible Engineering, and other technical organizations to align priorities, assess risk, and drive issues to closure.

• Analyze quality data, product and process performance, and recurring non-conformances to identify systemic trends, determine root causes, and develop corrective and preventive actions that improve product reliability, process capability, and operational performance.

• Establish and communicate quality strategies, technical recommendations, risks, and program-level impacts to technical leaders and management, enabling timely and informed decision-making.

• Identify opportunities to improve quality engineering practices across the organization and drive the adoption of scalable processes, tools, and standards.

• Mentor and provide technical guidance to quality engineers and cross-functional partners, helping develop engineering capability and raising the overall quality bar across Test and Launch.

• Act as a subject matter expert for quality engineering and serve as a trusted technical resource for complex quality, process, and product issues.

About You:

• Bachelor’s degree in Engineering or a related STEM field.

• 10+ years of experience in quality engineering, quality management, manufacturing quality, or a related engineering discipline.

• Demonstrated ability to apply engineering principles and quality methodologies to analyze complex technical issues, evaluate product and process risks, and develop effective corrective and preventive actions.

• Demonstrated experience leading complex, cross-functional projects from problem definition through implementation and sustained results, including establishing priorities, managing technical risk, and driving execution across multiple teams.

• Proven ability to influence technical and operational decisions without direct authority and build alignment across engineering, manufacturing, test, launch, and quality organizations.

• Strong understanding of quality systems, manufacturing processes, and product lifecycle considerations, with the ability to identify systemic issues and develop scalable solutions rather than addressing individual issues in isolation.

• Ability to communicate complex technical findings, quality risks, recommendations, and program-level impacts effectively to engineers, technical leaders, and management.

• Demonstrated experience mentoring engineers, influencing best practices, and raising the technical and operational quality standards of a team or organization.

• Ability to operate effectively in a fast-paced, highly dynamic environment where priorities may shift and decisions must be made with incomplete information.

• Ability to support occasional night shifts and weekend work and to travel as required by Test and Launch operations.

Nice to haves but not required:

• Experience serving as a technical quality lead, subject matter expert, or quality engineering leader within a fast-paced aerospace, manufacturing, launch, or complex assembly environment.

• Advanced knowledge of quality management standards and requirements such as AS9100, ISO 9001, NASA quality standards, or comparable regulated quality systems.

• Experience developing or deploying quality strategies, processes, and standards across multiple teams, programs, or manufacturing environments.

• Experience applying quality and product development methods such as Failure Modes and Effects Analysis (FMEA), Advanced Product Quality Planning (APQP), Statistical Process Control (SPC), Production Process Verification (PPV), Design for Manufacturability (DFM), or similar methodologies.

• Experience leading root cause investigations and corrective/preventive action efforts for complex or systemic product and process issues.

• Experience establishing quality metrics, dashboards, or performance indicators and using data to drive program-level decisions and continuous improvement.

• Experience using PLM, MES, ERP, or QMS systems to support quality workflows, analyze data, document issues, and make risk-based decisions, including determining when escalation is appropriate.

• Experience mentoring or providing technical leadership to engineers and cross-functional teams.

• Experience developing or improving inspection, verification, acceptance, or non-conformance processes for complex hardware.

Successful candidates must clear a background check administered by the US government to obtain clearance for on-site work at our government partner location in Cape Canaveral, Florida.

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:

$133,000—$199,000 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 accommodations@relativityspace.com.

Please note: Relativity Space does not accept unsolicited resumes, candidate profiles, or referrals from recruitment agencies or search firms. Any unsolicited submission - via email, our website, social media, or directly to an employee - will be deemed the property of Relativity Space, and no fee will be owed absent a current, fully executed agreement with Talent Acquisition that specifically authorizes submissions for the applicable role.