About Us

Hector Ruiz

Founder / Chief Engineer

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Leadership (25 Years) & Mech Engineering (15 Years)

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*VTOL UAVs (AFWERX SBIR Phase III; Flexrotor)

*DARPA AIR2WATER AWE(Water Vapor Pump)

*MDA Sensor Package(Targets / Counter Measures

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EXPERIENCE:

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VP Spacecraft & Mission Engineering – Defiant Space, Brunswick GA, Aug 202 to Present

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Chief Engineer – Defiant Space, Brunswick GA, DEC 2025 to August 20026

• Serve as technical design authority for Defiant’s rendezvous and proximity operations spacecraft, owning system-level engineering decisions across mechanical, electrical, software, thermal, and power domains.

• Project manager for spacecraft development, coordinating priorities, milestones, technical execution, staffing, and cross-functional decision-making.

• Lead engineering discipline leads, aligning mechanical, electrical, software, autonomy, systems and contracted engineering teams around program objectives, requirements, schedules, and design maturity.

• Drive engineering process development and organizational change, including creation and implementation of ECR/ECN workflows, design review gates, configuration control practices, and engineering release processes.

• Establish and lead gated design reviews to ensure compliance, technical readiness, risk closure, and cross-discipline alignment.

• Assess program-level technical risks and develop mitigation plans to protect cost, schedule, performance, and mission objectives.

• Conduct first-order spacecraft thermal and power analyses to inform architecture decisions, subsystem sizing, design trades, and hardware selection.

• Designed the SDR heat sink in SolidWorks based on thermal analysis results, spacecraft packaging constraints, and hardware integration requirements.

• Manage contracted engineering projects, ensuring technical deliverables meet program milestones, requirements, quality expectations, and integration needs.

• Assess resource needs, identify capability gaps, interview engineering candidates, and hire talent to support program growth and execution.

• Manage and mentor the mechanical engineering group, strengthening technical execution, ownership, and design discipline across the team.

 

Chief Engineer – EngineerX Corporation, Huntsville AL 35806, DEC 2024 to Present

• Led engineering and concept design of HyperXling, a liquid rocket propulsion system, with emphasis on manufacturability, cost reduction, assembly efficiency, and rapid iteration.

• Designed propulsion system components including nozzles, chambers, injectors, fuel fittings, manifolds, check valves, bulkheads, and supporting hardware.

• Used MATLAB + Ai Agents to perform first-order analysis and simulation of propulsion components, including nozzle and chamber performance, regenerative cooling, pressure optimization, thrust, and specific impulse.

• Under active dev: XMES, a 6DOF simulation platform that includes GNC, Autonomy, Aero provider via a NN

 

 

Senior Mechanical Engineer – Aurex Defense, Huntsville AL 35806, September 2024 to December 2025

• Developed a modular lightweight re-entry vehicle (RV) structure for the Targets & Countermeasures group at the Missile Defense Agency under the Low-Cost Re-Entry Vehicle (LCRV) project.

• Led design of the thermal protection system (TPS) and interface/integration for LCRV.

• Designed flight hardware for a SLV deployable sensor package, encompassing the thermal control system, main casing and structure, heat sinks, brackets, PCBA integration, and subsystem integration, ensuring optimal performance and reliability in space and vacuum environments.

• Collaborated with electrical engineers to optimize various PCB footprints, components, and connector placements for seamless system integration.

• Conducted first order heat transfer calculations to validate system performance under varying load conditions.

• Validated first order heat transfer calculations and lumped system assumption with thermal FEA analysis of the main thermal control system.

• Developed custom Radar Absorbing Material to enable casting of the RAM onto a custom casing with non-planer surfaces.

• Designed Radar Absorbing Material Casting Mold Tooling using additive manufacturing for rapid development

• Assembled and fit checked electro-mechanical components and revised components as needed

• Managed system mass properties and center of gravity to meet specifications for effective actuation.

 Chief Engineer - Montana Technologies, Brunswick GA, August 2021 to September 2024

• Designed AirJoule's custom 9,000 rpm vacuum water vapor pump from scratch (rotors, gears, gear box, servo integration, shafts, main casing, vacuum fittings, etc.) utilizing SolidWorks, SCORG, & SW FEA/CFD

• Selected seals, bearings, servo motor & other COTS HDW for the custom pump for optimal performance

• Fully assembled, troubleshooted and tested 2 pump units

• Revised design for manufacturing and performance

• Utilized GD&T per ASME y14.5m to create complete fabrication drawings for the vacuum pump components and other system components

• Selected vendors and procured all vacuum pump components and other airjoule parts

• Worked with part fabricators/vendors to troubleshoot production issues and revise components as needed for manufacturing

• Designed the AirJoule’s Protype 4 (P4) Vacuum Chamber to include cooling loop and penetration seals

• Optimized vacuum chamber using FEA to reduce weight and increase rigidity 

 

Mechanical Design Engineer - Composite Approach, Redmond OR, July 2020 to May 2021

• Designed the Fenix Space Satellite Launch Vehicle (SLV) carbon fiber cradle, release mechanism & actuation / launch mechanism

• Designed the carbon fiber cradle tooling mold; trim and drill tooling; produced layup and tooling work instructions and aided in the assembly of the first prototype.

• Designed Elroy Air’s UAV flight control mechanisms (brackets, linkages, custom hardware, motor mounts)

• Designed temporary (MDF) and permanent (composite) molds for wing, empennage, fuselage, and other carbon fiber parts

• Worked with fabrication leads to prepare various tooling and layup work instructions

• Designed various tooling weldments and stands

 

Mechanical Engineer - Aerovel Corporation, Bingen WA, February 2019 to September 2019

• Redesigned the Flexrotor’s (VTOL craft) wing molds to reduce the build time from 8 to 4 days

• Designed molds and fixtures for carbon composite manufacturing and other tools for assembly

• Conducted verification and validation for the implementation of tooling and craft components

• Generated work instructions to implement tooling and trained production staff on the use of new tooling

 

Engineering Technician II, Lam Research, Tualatin OR, May 2018 to January 2019  

•      Tested, installed, and maintained RF and other PECVD equipment on automated machinery
•     Troubleshooted PECVD equipment to include electronic controllers, sensors, and pneumatics
•     Obtained respirator and other training certifications to conduct maintenance in highly toxic equipment

Lead Manufacturing & Tooling Engineer, Permobil, Pasco WA, March 2016 to April 2018

• Led new product introduction projects while supervising 2 manufacturing engineers, 2 machinists and 1 mechanical engineering technician

• Applied Lean Manufacturing and Six Sigma principles to increase fabrication efficiency when designing new fabrication processes and tooling

• Conducted time studies to balance takt times in assembly lines and created new process flows in assembly

• Modified over 30 existing fixture designs to follow ECO’s or correct operating deficiencies

• Designed over 20 fixtures that contributed to total product lead time reduction from 21 days to 15 days

• Procured 2 Alpine 38ETR CNC Benders and designed tooling that reduced bender operators from 4 to 2

• Performed Verification and Validation on all fixtures and tooling to ensure 100% reliability

• Standardized 100% of the fabrication processes through work instructions and training

 

Field Engineer, Areva Federal Services, Richland WA, January 2015 to March 2016        

• Worked with fabricators to ensure equipment was fabricated and tested to specifications

• Worked with fabricators and design engineering to solve fabrication and design issues

• Designed extended reach tooling for the removal of contaminated equipment

• Designed work platforms and shielding for the removal of contaminated equipment

• General manufacturing engineering, work instruction creation and tool design

 

Mechanical Engineer, SAFE Boats International, Tacoma WA, August 2012 to December 2014

• Supervised the work of mechanical engineering technicians and drafters assigned to various mechanical systems

• Lead for mechanical systems engineering on the US Navy’s MK VI Patrol Boat

• Led troubleshooting and testing of mechanical systems for the MK VI Patrol Boat

• Designed structures and enclosures for equipment on the US Navy’s MK VI Patrol Boat

• Designed the testing fixture for the MK38 MOD 2 25mm weapon structure

• Conducted FEA on components, structures, and weldments

 

CAD Designer, TiLite, Pasco WA, August 2011 to June 2012

Squad Leader / Manager, US Army National Guard, Yakima WA, May 2002 to May 2011

• Managed operations and training of 12-member team

• Supervised 3 team leads

• Led development of team leads for future leadership roles