Senior Software Release Engineer

About the Team:

Relativity Space is on a mission to better connect humanity to space and the universe beyond our planet. With decades of experience scaling world-class technology organizations like Google, CEO Eric Schmidt is guiding Relativity into its next phase: advancing Terran R toward launch and building the foundation for long-term impact.

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:

As a Senior Release Engineer on the TRADE team, you'll own the release lifecycle of integrated vehicle software. You'll lead the coordination, packaging, validation, and deployment of software across diverse environments, ensuring that each release is stable, tested, and ready for use by partner teams across production, integration, and launch.

This role is deeply cross-functional and highly execution-focused. You'll need strong technical judgment, attention to detail, and a proactive mindset to manage software releases under evolving requirements and aggressive timelines.

You will:

• Own the end-to-end vehicle software release process, including packaging, versioning, traceability, and readiness reviews.
• Develop automation and scripting (primarily in Python) to streamline release workflows, validation steps, and artifact management.
• Build and maintain tools to validate and publish integrated release candidates from multiple software teams (FSW, ESW, Proxy, tools, etc).
• Coordinate closely with software developers, systems engineers, test operators, and integration teams to align releases with testing and operational needs.
• Lead and execute Run-for-Record campaigns-ensuring environments are prepared, results are captured, and test artifacts are properly reviewed and stored.
• Support post-release deployment to production and test environments; validate successful integration and assist with troubleshooting where needed.
• Improve CI/CD integration and pre-release testing to catch issues earlier and ensure continuous delivery readiness.
• Organize and facilitate data reviews, provide release documentation, and support software audits and anomaly investigations.

About You:

• 4+ years of professional experience with 2+ years in software release engineering, systems integration, test engineering, or a related field.
• Strong Python scripting experience focused on automation, tooling, or test infrastructure.
• Demonstrated ownership of complex software release processes involving multiple teams or components.
• Familiarity with CI/CD workflows, artifact packaging, versioning strategies, and testing pipelines.
• Experience coordinating across disciplines (e.g., software, hardware, operations) to align on software delivery goals.

Nice to haves but not required:

• Experience with software release processes for aerospace systems, launch vehicles, or other high-reliability domains.
• Familiarity with Conda, GitLab CI/CD, version control practices, and artifact repositories.
• Experience working with hardware-in-the-loop (HITL), simulation environments, or large-scale system integration.
• Strong analytical skills and experience supporting data reviews, root cause investigations, or release audits.