From Cutting Paper to Sending NASA to the Moon and Everything In-Between

Daniel graduated in 2019 from the University of Michigan with his bachelor’s in Computer Engineering, focusing on embedded systems and autonomous robotics.

Daniel just accepted an offer to join Blue Origin’s Lunar Transportation team (Blue Moon) as a DevOps & Software Integration Engineer and couldn’t be more excited to help get humans back to the moon! Previously he was an Embedded Flight Software Engineer, and DevOps Engineer working on the Photon satellite bus at Rocket Lab. The missions he’s worked the most on involved sending a NASA satellite to a new lunar orbit, in-space manufacturing with returning the payload back to earth, and a set of Photon vehicles soon to be sent to Mars! He also joins Rocket Lab’s recruiting team at campus events to help grow the engineering teams. One time Daniel received a personal golf cart ride from the CEO, Peter Beck.

Daniel first got professional embedded systems experience from a 150-year-old paper cutting company, The Challenge Machinery Company, where he built the prototype embedded system for a new product after graduating. He was also at an engineering consulting start-up in Ann Arbor, Treetown Tech, working on various projects related to autonomous vehicles, smart freezers, fuel cells, and MEMS before joining Rocket Lab.

Daniel enjoys playing classical piano, making homemade pizzas, riding his bicycle, and hanging out with his wife when he’s not working on spaceships.