Melissa Hendrichsen

Melissa Hendrichsen has a diverse work experience in the aviation and aerospace industry. Melissa is currently serving as the Director of Aircraft Certification and Product Assurance at SmartSky Networks, LLC since October 2021. Previously, they held the position of Director of Systems and Integration at Alakai Technologies Corporation from April 2021 to October 2021.

Prior to that, Melissa served as a Senior Aircraft Systems Certification Engineer at Kitty Hawk from September 2020 to April 2021. Melissa also worked at Mitsubishi Aircraft Corporation (Global) as the Manager of the Avionics Group from February 2019 to September 2020, and as an Avionics Engineer from November 2018 to February 2019.

Earlier in their career, Melissa held the position of Avionics Systems Engineering Manager at Safran Electronics & Defense, Avionics USA, LLC from March 2018 to November 2018. Melissa was responsible for managing the Systems, Hardware, and Software Engineering teams, providing direct support to customers, defining and developing operations requirements, and creating processes to support compliance with FAA certification requirements.

Melissa also gained valuable experience as a Sr. Systems Engineer at BendixKing from August 2015 to March 2018. Prior to that, they worked as a Systems Engineer at Avidyne Corporation from September 2012 to July 2015, where they were involved in the hardware certification lifecycle and documentation for DO-254 compliance.

Earlier in their career, Melissa served as an Aviation Systems Engineer/Program Coordinator at Garmin International from September 2010 to September 2012. Melissa also worked at United Space Alliance as an Engineer from January 2008 to September 2010, and as a Systems Engineer from October 2005 to January 2008.

Melissa began their career as a Research Assistant at the University of Central Florida from August 2004 to October 2005. Overall, they have demonstrated expertise in aircraft certification, systems engineering, avionics, and hardware compliance throughout their career.

Melissa Hendrichsen has an educational background that includes a Bachelor's degree in Computer Science from Ball State University, which they obtained from 2000 to 2002. Following that, they pursued a Master's degree in Physics at Ball State University from 2002 to 2005. Later on, Melissa Hendrichsen enrolled at the University of Central Florida, where they earned a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) degree in Electrical and Electronics Engineering from 2004 to 2005.