Relativity Space hires Scott Van Vliet, reveals plan for new Factory Operating System
January 7, 2022
Relativity Space, Long Beach, California, USA, has hired Scott Van Vliet as its Senior VP of Software Engineering. In his new role, Van Vliet will lead the Integrated Software and Additive Manufacturing teams, overseeing over 150 employees today and aiming to double the team before the end of the year to expand Relativity’s Factory Operating System.
The Factory Operating System is a unified platform that integrates data collection, correlation, machine learning, visualisation, and workflow tools in an effort to enable faster rates of compounding progress across Relativity’s Stargate AM machines, production factories, test & launch infrastructure, and rocket development. With teams across its Long Beach and Vandenberg, California; Seattle, Washington; Washington D.C.; Stennis, Mississippi; and Cape Canaveral, Florida, locations, Relativity is scaling its approach to Additive Manufacturing and automation to build a new tech stack for aerospace manufacturing.
Van Vliet most recently served as Corporate VP at Microsoft, where he was responsible for the real-time communications and collaboration platform powering Microsoft Teams. As an industry leader with over two decades of experience building new tech products, Van Vliet also worked at Amazon, leading its Irvine campus in the development of Amazon Echo devices, new experiences with Alexa and cloud capabilities for Alexa Voice Service.
“We’re on a mission to create an entirely new tech stack for aerospace manufacturing,” stated Tim Ellis, co-founder and CEO of Relativity. “Building on six years of development to date, with Scott’s leadership we’re now ready to take our in-house developed tools to the next level and create an entire Factory Operating System to transform aerospace through data, machine learning, and an entirely new way of developing products.”
“It is inevitable that more industries will be disrupted via software, and Relativity is blazing a new path for rockets and aerospace on route to building humanity’s multi-planetary future on Mars,” Ellis continued. “We were very intentional with who we brought on to lead this core unit of our business. On top of being a force of nature in the industry with twenty plus years building some of the world’s most innovative breakthroughs like Amazon Alexa, Echo, Microsoft Azure, and Teams, Scott is a humble leader and wonderful human being.”
Van Vliet concluded, “Joining a company that’s revolutionising how rockets are made with autonomous robotics, 3D printing, and machine learning is an out-of-this-world opportunity, and I’m excited to work with the team to build out this next chapter for Relativity and its products.”
