Materials Engineer Intern

Company Overview:

At Relativity Space, we have two audacious goals: to build the next great commercial launch company with Terran R and to become America's leading force in additive manufacturing innovation. Both contribute to our long-term vision of creating humanity’s industrial base on Mars, paving the way for interplanetary life to expand the possibilities of the human experience. This journey begins right here on Earth – where we design, build, and fly rockets to deliver customer payloads to orbit. Terran R, our medium-to-heavy lift reusable rocket, fulfills the growing demand for launch capacity, thanks to our iterative approach that accelerates design, testing, and development while minimizing costs. While our groundbreaking research and development in 3D printing pushes the boundaries of large-scale additive manufacturing.

Your journey with us is more than just a job – it’s an opportunity to shape the future of aerospace technology, additive manufacturing, and the human experience alongside a community of passionate, creative individuals. Join us on this extraordinary journey, as we work together to transform our vision into reality.

About the Team:

The Materials & Processes team is responsible for the development, characterization, and inspection of materials across the Terran R launch vehicle. We specialize in rapid implementation of material systems through robust internal testing capabilities and first principles driven qualification approaches. We have recently made our first primary structure barrel, supported introduction of next generation powder additive alloys in the Aeon-R engine, and developed 100% in-cell NDE inspection capabilities for WAAM manufactured hardware.

Past Intern Projects (just a few examples!)

• Conducted materials characterization on novel additive materials, and leveraged in-house materials characterization lab to complete various projects
• Developed software tools for image analysis and predicting additive material properties
• Developed new post-processing methods for propulsion hardware to improve material performance
• Participated in manufacturing operations including structures assembly, heat treatments, and structural welding
• Implemented improved materials mechanical processing for optimized additive material performance
• Studied reliability of additive raw materials in terms of chemistry tolerances, resistance to oxidation, and geometric tolerances

What you’ll do:

• Design, develop, and optimize the materials used in Relativity’s various additive manufacturing
• programs (L-PBF, WAAM, DED, CSAM, etc.)
• Conduct materials characterization projects to better understand and improve upon Relativity’s AM materials
• Develop new additive manufacturing technologies and engineer their impact on material microstructure and properties
• Build engineering systems across Relativity to facilitate the most effective use and manufacturing of aerospace hardware

Skills/Competencies we’re looking for:

• Finishing your degree in an Engineering or Scientific discipline, with exposure to the fundamentals of Materials Science and Engineering
• Prior experience that demonstrates deep technical understanding and problem-solving capability
• Self-starter with the ability to wear multiple hats, solve problems, and develop technical skills beyond just materials engineering

Nice to have but not required:

• Familiarity with aerospace alloy systems, including aluminum, nickel, steel, titanium, etc.
• Familiarity with non-metallic systems, including high temperature materials, electrical materials, adhesives, and polymers
• Familiarity with additive manufacturing technologies, specifically metal AM technologies including WAAM, DED, L-PBF, etc.
• Familiarity with common metals processing techniques, including forming, casting, welding, heat treating, coating, amongst others
• Experience with materials characterization, including metallography, electron microscopy, mechanical testing, optical microscopy, non-destructive evaluation, etc.
• Experience with data science and informatics techniques, especially applied to materials data management and design of materials

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.

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:

$31—$35 USD