Aerospace
10 SpaceX engineering leaders
These ten directors and vice presidents lead engineering teams at SpaceX across Falcon, Dragon, Starship and Starlink. A reader can learn from them how SpaceX structures vehicle engineering, testing and production and how those teams make design and reliability decisions.
Professionals to explore
01—10Chris Trautner
LinkedInExperience: VP, Falcon and Dragon Engineering · SpaceX
VP, Falcon and Dragon Engineering at SpaceX since May 2025, a vice-president-level engineering role according to the profile. At SpaceX he was also Manager, Falcon Vehicle Engineering (2019–2021), Senior Manager, Falcon Vehicle Engineering (2021–2022), Director, Falcon Vehicle Engineering (2022–2023) and Senior Director, Falcon Vehicle Engineering (2023–2025).
Eduardo Velazquez
LinkedInExperience: Director, Crew Starship Engineering · SpaceX
Director, Crew Starship Engineering at SpaceX since 2022; his profile says he is responsible for engineering, architecture, production, integration and test of crewed Starship vehicles, including the NASA Artemis lunar landers, with direct leadership of engineering teams in structures, mechanisms, propulsion and human factors. He was previously Sr. Manager, Human Landing Systems Engineering at SpaceX (2020–2022).
Joe Petrzelka
LinkedInExperience: VP, Starship Engineering · SpaceX
VP, Starship Engineering at SpaceX since 2021; his profile headline gives the title as VP, Booster Engineering. At SpaceX he was also Manager, Falcon Mechanisms (2016–2017), Senior Manager, Falcon Engineering (2017–2018), Director, Dragon Engineering (2018–2019) and Senior Director, Dragon Engineering (2019–2021).
Jon Edwards
LinkedInExperience: Senior Vice President of Falcon and Dragon · SpaceX
Senior Vice President of Falcon and Dragon at SpaceX since 2026; his profile says he leads the teams responsible for both programs, overseeing design, build, test, launch operations, cost, reliability and performance. His other SpaceX roles include Director of Stage Propulsion Systems (2013–2014), Falcon 9 Product Director (2014–2016), Senior Director of Vehicle Engineering (2016–2020) and Vice President of Falcon Launch Vehicles (2020–2026).
Jon Herman
LinkedInExperience: Senior Director, Starlink Constellation Engineering · SpaceX
Senior Director, Starlink Constellation Engineering at SpaceX since June 2026, alongside the Director, Starlink Constellation Engineering title listed since 2025; his profile says the group combines GNC teams, software teams and hardware operations teams to operate the constellation safely. He was previously Manager, Fleet GNC (2022–2023) and Sr. Manager, Fleet GNC (2023–2025) at SpaceX.
Melvin Peng
LinkedInExperience: Senior Director of Avionics Engineering · SpaceX
Former Senior Director of Avionics Engineering at SpaceX (2020–2025), a team his profile describes as the foundation of SpaceX's avionics systems supporting Falcon and Dragon; he has been Senior Director of Hardware Engineering there since April 2025. His other SpaceX roles include Avionics Test Engineering Director (2017–2018) and Test and Life Cycle Engineering Director (2018–2020).
Ryan Moore
LinkedInExperience: Sr. Director, Falcon and Merlin Engineering · SpaceX
Sr. Director, Falcon and Merlin Engineering at SpaceX since August 2024; he was Director, Falcon Launch Vehicles (2022–2024), a role his profile describes as program management, product development and engineering leadership for launch vehicles. His other SpaceX roles include Vehicle Lead Engineer, Falcon Engineering (2015–2018), Manager of Falcon Reusability, Falcon Engineering (2018–2020) and Senior Manager, Falcon Engineering (2020–2022).
Shana Diez
LinkedInExperience: Director, Starship Engineering · SpaceX
Director, Starship Engineering at SpaceX since October 2020; her profile says she leads the Starship Vehicle Operations and Automation team of software and operations engineers, responsible for vehicle-level test planning, CONOPs development, data review and operations planning. Her other SpaceX roles include Manager, Reusability Development (2013–2015), Director of Build Reliability (2015–2017) and Director, Change Engineering (2017–2020).
Tyler Schlenker
LinkedInExperience: Director, Starship Engineering · SpaceX
Director, Starship Engineering at SpaceX since November 2024; his profile says he is responsible for development and build engineering for structures and mechanisms on the Super Heavy Booster, including primary and secondary structures, thermal protection systems and aerostructures. He was previously Manager, Starship Engineering (2020–2022) and Sr. Manager, Starship Engineering - Super Heavy Booster (2022–2024).
Wil Wang
LinkedInExperience: VP, Starship Engineering · SpaceX
VP, Starship Engineering at SpaceX since 2020; his profile says he is responsible for the company's Starship project development. His other SpaceX roles include Director of Statics Engineering (2012–2013), Sr. Director of Structures Engineering (2013–2015, with the same title listed again from 2019) and Sr. Director, Design Reliability and Vehicle Analysis (2015–2020).
Choose the right perspective
Match the person's program and discipline to your question, since launch vehicle, crewed spacecraft, satellite and avionics engineering involve different tradeoffs. Pick a vice president for questions about organization and program-level decisions, and a director for questions about a specific subsystem, test campaign or build process.
Questions to take into the conversation
- 01How does your team decide when a design is ready to test and when it needs more analysis first?
- 02How are engineering and production teams organized so that design changes reach the build floor quickly?
- 03How do you decide whether to build a component in-house or buy it from a supplier?
About this directory
This is a professional research starting point based on business profile data retrieved on . Titles and companies reflect that source snapshot and may describe past or present roles. Check the linked profiles for current details. Inclusion does not imply Instant Expert membership or availability.
Request a correction or removal