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Job Description

Overview

At Relativity Space, we’re building rockets to serve today’s needs and tomorrow’s breakthroughs. The Materials and NDE team plays a central role in enabling the Terran R vehicle to fly, re-fly, and scale by developing, characterizing, and inspecting materials and processes across all parts of the vehicle.

Responsibilities

  • Act as a core member of a small team focused on extreme environment materials innovation.
  • Execute materials and process prototyping, test coupon design, fabrication, testing, and documentation.
  • Serve as the subject matter expert for troubleshooting high temperature composites and advanced heatshield processing challenges.
  • Share hands-on knowledge and deep technical insights into material processing, machining, and testing to drive problem resolution.
  • Mentor and train new team members in mastering skills and processes; set and demonstrate high standards of quality and consistency.
  • Assist the team on day-to-day lab operations to ensure overall mission success.

Requirements

  • Associate's Degree in Natural Science, Materials, or related field.
  • 10+ years of hands-on experience in aerospace high temperature materials processing, coupon fabrication, and testing.
  • Fast learner and self-starter with strong problem-solving skills.
  • Skilled in composite panel layup fabrication, surface prep, and adhesives/bonding applications.
  • Experienced in advanced heatshield composite processing and machining.

Benefits

  • PTO

Benefits

PTO
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How this job compares in Long Beach, CA

Pay in context

At roughly $48/hr, this posting comes in about 11% below the $54/hr median for welding jobs in Long Beach, CA, where the middle half runs $34–$69/hr across 49 postings with published pay. Put another way, it pays more than about 45% of the comparable postings we have wage data for. That gap is worth raising directly — in a market this size there is normally room to negotiate toward the median, particularly if you already hold the certifications the posting asks for.

The local market in Long Beach, CA

We're tracking 56 other active welding openings in Long Beach, CA right now, from 15 different employers. 34 of them were added in the last week. Across California as a whole we're tracking 623 other active welding openings from 288 employers. A metro this active generally means you have real leverage — employers here are competing for the same welders. Browse every welding job in Long Beach, or widen the search to California.

Relativity Space currently has 19 other openings live in California, which is usually a sign of either steady growth or steady turnover — worth asking which in the interview.

The most active employers in California at the moment, by number of open welding reqs, are SpaceX (34), Vast (22), and Relativity Space (19). Volume like that usually means either a genuine expansion or a staffing agency working several client sites — worth knowing which before you apply.

Within California, the best-paying metros we track by median hourly rate are Redondo Beach at $71/hr, Long Beach at $54/hr, and Torrance at $43/hr. Long Beach is among them.

Similar openings near Long Beach, CA

Pay figures are medians computed from live postings in the Welding Pros index, not from survey data, and they move as employers post. Materials & Processes Technical Specialist II figures were last recalculated when this page was built.