Director, Supplier Development Engineering
- [job_card.full_time]
Job Description
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 Quality team is focused on embedding quality into every part of the design and production process for Terran R. Not just inspecting at the end but influencing how things are built from the start. The team embeds themselves directly within design, manufacturing, test, and launch teams to stay close to the hardware, understand constraints, and proactively shape decisions. As we move beyond initial development into production and then scaled operations, now is the time to put the right processes, controls, and inspections in place without slowing down progress. The team plays a key role in balancing risk, driving a culture of ownership, and ensuring that speed doesn't come at the cost of reliability. Success here means building a quality system that scales with the Terran R program and Relativity as a whole.
About the Role:
- Develop and lead a high-performing Supplier Development Engineering team, fostering ownership, technical rigor, and data-driven decision-making.
- Set and execute the supplier development strategy, reliability roadmap, and SQMS processes to meet Terran R production, launch, and compliance requirements (AS9100/ISO 9001).
- Drive supplier performance management, establishing key metrics and scorecards to improve PPM, yield, PPAP timing, and overall supplier capability.
- Own major supplier risk escalation and resolution, guiding disciplined problem solving (e.g., 8D) and ensuring rapid recovery on quality or capacity issues.
- Lead cross-functional alignment with Engineering, Manufacturing, and Supply Chain on supplier qualification, technical requirements, and NPI execution.
- Oversee technical and operational execution, including supplier qualification, APQP/DFM/DFA, PPAP/FAIR approvals, and CI initiatives (Lean/Six Sigma) to ensure robust manufacturing and protect build schedules.
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.
- 5+ years of direct people management experience, including coaching, mentorship, and performance management of an engineering team
- 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.
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 accommodations@relativityspace.com.
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