Ian Brown

Ian Brown is a propulsion build engineer at SpaceX from August 2023 to May 2025, where responsibilities included implementing propulsion subassembly production cells and developing tooling for ship production. Ian also contributed as a build reliability engineer, employing tolerance stack-up analysis to resolve critical misalignment issues and optimizing the thermal protection system, thus reducing integration time. Prior experience includes founding Liquid Rocketry at Illinois, managing the design and construction of a Kerosene/LO2 rocket engine, and serving as project manager at THRUST@UIUC, where simulation and financial oversight tasks were performed. Ian's early career involved research assistance at the University of Illinois, assembling components for an advanced accelerator, and working as an assistant manager at Adrian Brown Consultants Inc. Ian holds a Bachelor's degree in Engineering Physics from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.