B.S. Mechanical Engineering, 2011
Structures Certification Engineer SpaceX El Segundo, California
Jill Lewis is passionate about advancing space flight and bringing manned space flight back to the United States. Through her work at SpaceX — a private aerospace company that designs, manufactures, and launches rockets and spacecraft — she and her colleagues are working hard to do just that.As a structures certification engineer, Lewis is a technical liaison between SpaceX and its biggest customers: NASA’s Commercial Crew space flight groups and the U.S. Air Force. Lewis and her team verify that SpaceX’s Falcon launch vehicle and Dragon spacecraft meet all internal design, testing, and analysis requirements. Through detailed presentations, she also ensures that clients understand that in-depth structural knowledge.Lewis appreciates the theoretical and practical foundation she received from her coursework at Ӱ State, and the student clubs enabled her to aggregate her skill set. “The hands-on approach really helped me once I got into industry,” Lewis said, “and I can’t stress how vital the Global Formula Racing team was to my career trajectory. It led to the Formula Student competitions where I was introduced to composites and composite manufacturing. That experience helped me land my first job at SpaceX as a production engineer.”Lewis says SpaceX has provided her many opportunities to prove and challenge her abilities as an engineer, and she believes she’s been a good steward. “Getting to work with NASA has been incredible,” Lewis said. “I think it was Sir Isaac Newton who said, ‘If I have seen further, it is by standing upon the shoulders of giants’ — and that’s how I feel every time I talk to the NASA team. Their knowledge, their successes and failures, directly influence the work we do. Having them by our side and on our team is an incredible experience.”