Senior Embedded Software 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 Vehicle Software team develops the safety-critical software that runs on Terran R. The work spans a distributed, real-time control system operating under extreme conditions like Mach 5 atmospheric flight, with a deployment pace that allows you to see your code run on rocket engines daily. The team is building new system architecture from the ground up and just as importantly, testing, releasing, and deploying it. You don’t need an aerospace background: what matters is experience with high-reliability software for complex systems. This is a rare opportunity to shape the foundation of Terran R’s software stack while directly influencing performance, reliability, and flight success.

About the Role:

We are seeking an experience Embedded Software Engineer with deep expertise in motor control system development. This engineer will help integrate and tune the motor-control library within our application framework, ensuring reliable performance of high-speed motors used in rocket applications.

The ideal candidate combines strong theoretical background in motor control principles with practical, hands-on experience implementing and validating control algorithms on real hardware.

About You:

• 5+ years of experience in embedded systems with a focus on motor control


• Strong proficiency in C/C++ and familiarity with FreeRTOS or similar RTOS environments


• Expert knowledge of PMSM/BLDC motor control principles and applications, including current, velocity, and position control loops, and advanced techniques such as FOC


• Experience with basic debugging tools: oscilloscope, logic analyzer, power analyzer

Nice to haves but not required:

• Prior experience with Field Oriented Control (FOC)


• Prior work experience in aerospace industry


• Strong understanding of PWM generation strategies, resolver/encoder interfaces, and ADC synchronization and timing for precise control feedback


• Familiarity with network stack implementation, socket-level programming, and transport protocols such as UDP, TCP/IP, and multicast data distribution


• Experience with firmware development in RTOS environment (preferably FreeRTOS)


• Familiarity with hardware in the loop testing (HITL) and CI/CD pipelines for embedded systems

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:

$165,000 - $211,000 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 [email protected] .