Director, Mechanical Design Engineering, Tooling

About the Team:

The Tooling and Factory Automation team sits at the intersection of design, manufacturing, and automation, making everything from large-scale structural fixtures to small tools that directly enable Terran R's production. As a design group embedded within the manufacturing organization, we dig deep into the needs of our internal partners to understand root problems, propose solutions, and deliver hardware to help build faster, scale smarter, and work better. The team is also at the forefront of Relativity's growing factory automation efforts, an increasingly critical part of scaling production of Terran R at existing and future facilities. You'll have the autonomy to make decisions, field solutions, and see them in action on the factory floor. Ultimately, you're not just designing tools or automated processes; you're defining how rockets and factories get built.

About the Role:

• Lead and develop a high-performing team of tooling engineers delivering solutions that enable safe, efficient, and repeatable production.
• Define and execute the long-term tooling strategy, aligning priorities across design, manufacturing, and operations to support current and future production goals.
• Oversee design, fabrication, and commissioning of complex tooling systems that improve manufacturability, quality, and throughput across multiple work centers.
• Manage the tooling project portfolio, driving cost, schedule, and technical performance to ensure readiness for both production and development programs.
• Partner with design engineering and manufacturing teams to ensure tooling readiness for new product introductions and continuous product evolution.
• Standardize best practices for design documentation, preventive maintenance, and configuration control to ensure reliability and compliance across all tooling assets.

About You:

• Bachelor's degree in Mechanical, Manufacturing, or Aerospace Engineering (or equivalent experience).
• 10+ years of experience in tooling design, manufacturing engineering, or related field, with 4+ years in people leadership.
• Expertise with CAD and PLM systems (e.g., NX, Teamcenter, CATIA, SolidWorks).
• Demonstrated experience leading large-scale tooling initiatives for complex hardware (structures, assemblies, or propulsion).
• Strong understanding of GD&T, tolerance analysis, materials, and manufacturing processes (machining, composites, weldments, additive). Proven ability to manage cross-functional programs balancing cost, schedule, and performance.

Nice to haves but not required:

• Experience in aerospace, automotive, or oil & gas production environments with rapid development cycles.
• Background in Lean manufacturing and Design for Manufacturability (DFM).
• Experience with factory automation, lifting and handling systems, or test tooling.
• Strong leadership presence with ability to coach and scale engineering organizations.