AI Software Engineer II
Relativity Space is hiring an AI Software Engineer II. Level rates it ; you can apply on Relativity Space.
Level's read on this job
- On Level's scale, this software engineer role is Builds AI ●●●●: the job is building AI systems.
- Tools and skills the posting cites include Claude, Python and PyTorch.
- Level classifies it as a mid-level role.
- Level lists 406 other open roles at Relativity Space.
AI in this role
Build core AI applications, agents, and platforms to automate rocket manufacturing and design workflows.
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 Terrestrial Software team is building the foundation for an automated rocket factory and integrated launch platform. Their mission is to automate and streamline workflows across the entire lifecycle of Terran R, from raw material intake to launch operations and eventually manufacturing on Mars. Today, that means partnering directly with teams across design, materials, manufacturing, and test and launch to design, implement, and deploy end-user enterprise-wide applications, industrial automation, data analytics infrastructure, and next-generation AI to solve real problems and accelerate progress. Long term, the team is laying the groundwork for a modular, scalable software platform that can power highly autonomous operations on Earth and beyond. This is a team for builders and thinkers who thrive on cross-functional impact and want to shape the digital backbone of our future in space.
The AI, Data and Platform Engineering team leads Relativity's initiative to make AI a core part of how we design, build, and test rocket hardware. We build the applications, agents, data foundations, and platform that put AI in the hands of engineers and operators across the company. We are a small, high-ownership team that ships quickly, works directly with users, and treats reliability and evaluation as first-class parts of every AI product.
About the Role:
You will help build AI systems used by engineers and operators across the company, working across the full software development life cycle: concept, design, implementation, and ongoing iteration. Build AI-powered applications and agents on top of foundation models, and make them reliable in production. Follow agile development practices and ship quality software that is continuously integrated and deployed. Solve complex problems with simple solutions. Work directly with users and stakeholder teams to define requirements, implement solutions, and iterate. Technologies we use: Python, React, TypeScript, Go. Foundation models (Claude and others), agent and orchestration frameworks, retrieval and vector search, LLM evaluation tooling. Spark, Iceberg, DuckDB, Redshift, DBT, Postgres, Mongo. AWS, Kubernetes (cloud and on-prem), Terraform, Helm.
About You:
- Bachelor's degree or higher in Computer Science or a related engineering field (Computer, Software, Electrical, Aerospace)
- 3 to 5 years of experience building, shipping, and iterating on applications and services
- Practical experience building AI features with large language models, such as agents, retrieval-augmented generation, tool use, or evaluation, and shipping them to real users
- Hands-on experience building with large language models, whether through coursework, projects, or self-directed work
- Experience designing in collaboration with non-software stakeholders
- Proficient in the languages and tools you love most, and willing to learn new ones
Nice to haves but not required:
- Experience designing and scaling AI or service architectures that support high-performance, user-facing applications
- Experience building evaluation and observability systems that keep AI reliable in production
- Background in data engineering, applied machine learning, or building and maintaining knowledge bases and ontologies
- Experience turning research into working prototypes and reading current AI literature to inform design choices
- Experience developing, debugging, and shipping software products on large code bases that span platforms and tools
- Exposure to manufacturing, hardware, robotics, or other physical-world domains
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.
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 accommodations@relativityspace.com.
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.
How we rate this
AI Software Engineer II at Relativity Space rates 85 out of 100 for how much of the daily work is AI. That makes it Builds AI (AI Level 4 of 4). The level is about AI in the job, not seniority.
Builds AI. The job is building AI systems.
- ●●●● Builds AI80 to 100
- ●●●○ Works on AI60 to 79
- ●●○○ Uses AI40 to 59
- ●○○○ Little AI0 to 39
Levels come from how often the tools, models and workflows of the role are named in the posting itself. Read the description and count the AI tools, models and workflows it names.
Prepare for this job
Built from this posting and from similar jobs on Level.
Skills and AI tools this role asks for
Also common in software engineer jobs at this level
Pay
- Typical software engineer job
- $167k
This posting doesn't list pay. Use the typical software engineer figure when pay comes up. See software engineer jobs
Questions you could be asked
- How would you design a retrieval step so the model answers from real data instead of guessing?
- How do you decide that one model's output is better than another's for a given task?
- Tell me about a project where machine learning was part of your work. What did you do?
- Tell me about a project where software engineering was part of your work. What did you do?
- Tell me about a project where agents was part of your work. What did you do?
Adapt your resume
- List these exact terms on your resume: RAG, AI Evaluation, Machine learning, Software Engineering, and Agents. An applicant tracking system matches the wording, not the idea.
- Attach one line of real, concrete experience to at least one of them. A tool named with nothing behind it rarely survives a human read.
- Lead with what you built, trained or shipped. This role is judged on the AI system itself, not the tools around it.
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