ShopFloorJobs
Relativity Space logo

Senior Robotics Automation and Controls Engineer

Relativity Space · Long Beach, CA

Level
Senior
Team
Controls
Degree
Required
Experience asked
5+ years
Industry
Aerospace & defense
Posted
Today

The role in 30 seconds

A senior controls role at Relativity Space (aerospace & defense) in Long Beach, CA. Partner with mechanical, manufacturing, and design engineers to create solutions tailored to a wide range of applications and processes.

They ask for
5+ years · degree required
Tools it names
PLC, Robotics, Automation, Welding, Tooling

Read from the posting. The full description is below.

From the plant jobs report · week of October 26, 2026

Controls Engineer roles in California: typical posted base $124k–$180k.

Median of the low and high ends of 56 live postings that list pay, out of 113 controls engineer openings in California, read from manufacturers' own careers sites.

California plant jobs report →Pay by team and state →What moves pay →

How this role compares

Against 112 other live controls postings in California.

Base pay
Not listed in this posting

Typical $123k–$179k, from 54 postings that list pay.

Experience asked
Typical (5+ years)

Similar roles usually ask 5+ years.

Skills these teams ask for most

  • ✓ Automation 68%
  • ✓ PLC 46%
  • ✓ Robotics 42%
  • Validation (IQ/OQ/PQ) 37%
  • Python 35%
  • Root cause 21%

✓ = this posting asks for it too. % = share of similar postings that mention it.

Stands out: this posting asks for Welding, which few similar roles mention. If you have it, lead with it.

It asks for 5+ years. If you're close, apply anyway: requirements are a wish list. Talk to someone doing this work there first.

At a glance

Pulled from the posting text. If it's not listed here, the posting didn't say.

How to get in at this plant

Five moves over a week or two. The first one takes ten minutes.

  1. 1

    Pick 2–3 people on the Controls team at Relativity Space

    We found 2 people at this company and state: 2 in this kind of role. Engineers who joined in the last year or two reply the most. See them ↓

  2. 2

    Send a short, curious note

    One real question about their work. No favors yet. Each person gets a different note, written for this role.

    Write to Nikko → (free)
  3. 3

    Turn a reply into a short call

    Questions worth asking about this team:

    • What does a normal week look like on your team?
    • How did you land the job? What stood out in your interviews?
  4. 4

    Apply with someone vouching for you

    If the call went well, ask whether they’d pass your résumé to the hiring manager. Send your résumé link, apply that day, and let them know.

  5. 5

    Bring proof to the interview

    One page of before-and-after numbers from projects you led: scrap, OEE, cycle time, cost. Plant managers hire on results.

This plant: Relativity Space in Long Beach

70 other open roles at this site · 2 people we found in controls roles at Relativity Space.

All 71 roles at Relativity Space →
Full description from Relativity SpaceAs posted on their careers site.Show

About the Role

As a Robotics Automation & Controls Engineer, you'll help lead the technical direction of a growing team that's expanding automation across our manufacturing organization. Your projects will touch every corner of the factory, from improving the robotic systems already running in production to designing and building permanent infrastructure from the ground up. You'll partner with mechanical, manufacturing, and design engineers to create solutions tailored to a wide range of applications and processes.

Nice to haves but not required

  • ✓Working with factory SCADA and analytic software, such as Inductive Ignition or Grafana, to bring factory telemetry to your fingertips.
  • ✓Experience in writing PLC code; developing, activating, and troubleshooting PLCs (preferably Beckhoff, but Siemens and AB Rockwell is ok)
  • ✓Working with factory SCADA systems, such as Inductive Ignition, to bring factory telemetry to your fingertips.

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.

Show full 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 Factory Automation and Controls Engineering team sits at the intersection of design, manufacturing, and automation. We're a small team of hands-on engineers exploring the edge of what's possible, turning raw ideas into technologies that could reshape the future of aerospace and beyond. We build everything from deployable sensor packages to large-scale automated robotic systems that directly enable production of Terran R. As a design group embedded in the Tooling organization, we work closely with our internal partners to understand their root problems, propose solutions, and deliver hardware that helps Relativity build faster, scale smarter, and work better.

We're at the forefront of Relativity's growing factory automation efforts, which are increasingly critical to scaling Terran R production at our current and future facilities. You'll have the autonomy to make decisions, field solutions, and see your work in action on the factory floor. We're not just designing tools and automated processes. We're defining how our rockets get built.

Projects you might work on include

  • •Designing and implementing robotic systems for welding, fabrication, material handling, and component inspection.
  • •Supporting existing robotic systems through production simulation, offline programming, and deployment
  • •Architecting factory automation solutions that improve speed, quality, reliability, and efficiency across our manufacturing processes

About You

  • •Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering, Mechatronics, Mechanical Engineering, Computer Engineering, or a related field
  • •5+ years’ experience with programming Fanuc, Kuka, ABB or similar robotics control systems with motion planning, task allocation, and synchronization algorithms for multi-robot systems
  • •Demonstrated ability to design and implement industrial safety systems including risk assessments, job hazard analysis, and programming safety PLCs
  • •Demonstrated ability to identify and mitigate technical risks in complex systems
  • •Experience producing exceptional electrical and pneumatics schematics and work instructions

Hiring Range

$124,000 — $186,000 USD

Please note: Relativity Space does not accept unsolicited resumes, candidate profiles, or referrals from recruitment agencies or search firms. Any unsolicited submission - via email, our website, social media, or directly to an employee - will be deemed the property of Relativity Space, and no fee will be owed absent a current, fully executed agreement with Talent Acquisition that specifically authorizes submissions for the applicable role.

More Controls roles nearby