01 — About
About
I have developed and productionized additive technologies, widening process windows to maximize rate, yield, and material performance for flight hardware. I spent the last 15 years advancing additive manufacturing across desktop FDM, industrial polymer printing, melt-pool sensing, and multi-laser powder bed fusion — owning printers, parts, and processes. I scaled SpaceX Raptor Additive deliveries 10x, grew the printer fleet 4x, raised utilization to 85%, and cut turnover cycle time 75%. I run Elon’s Algorithm and attack problems with a first-principles physics approach — powder, lasers, and mechanics.
I earned a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Cal Poly Pomona, hold two 3D-printing patents, and received four SpaceX Kickass Awards. I have immersed myself in additive manufacturing labs, developing strong hands-on expertise. I have designed and fabricated printers, supported multi-industry service bureaus, and produced SpaceX Raptor engine components. I take extreme ownership of vertically integrated lines and produce parts from powder through print, heat treat, and qualification, then deliver them to machining. If you need high rate and yield additive production delivering high-spec hardware, please reach out to me at MilesIn3D@gmail.com.
02 — Work
Work
SpaceX
Additive Manufacturing Engineer II
Designer and manufacturer of reusable rockets enabling NASA crew launches, Starlink and Grok AI
Additive Printer Platform OwnerMulti-Laser Powder Bed Fusion (LPBF) Technology - Maximized utilization & reliability, minimized labor & costs by owning daily operations, preventative maintenance, root cause investigations and process improvements6
- Scaled deliveries 10x by growing and productionizing fleet 4x in parallel with building a brand new gold standard print lab from scratch
- Increased machine utilization to 85% by driving root cause investigations and developing & implementing engineering solutions through tooling hardware, software and process controls. Linearized the production line, qualified a new recoater nozzle, and increased sieve life by 5x.
- Reduced preventative maintenance downtime by improving part life then converting from time-based to cycle-based frequencies. Also internalized and democratized PM through standard work instructions and training alongside building spares inventory, which in turn saved $200k per year (previously outsourced).
- Reduced labor and machine turnover cycle time by 75% through applying Elon's Algorithm to hardware, software and processes
- Developed in-situ machine data and log analysis to trigger conditional preventative maintenance, accurately diagnose root causes faster, along with better understanding machine to machine differences
- Drove print software feature improvements from idea creation to implementation through 8x major revisions, focusing on workflow, reliability, calibrations and parameters
Raptor Fuel Preburner Part OwnerDeveloped, manufactured and qualified Raptor V1, V2, V3 engine components from metal powder, print file, print, powder removal, heat treat, tensile testing, containments, investigations and tooling8
- Advanced Raptor engine performance, rate, reliability and life by maximizing and productionizing additive manufacturing and post processing capabilities
- Deleted Raptor Additive parts and processes by combining multiple engine components through applying Elon's Algorithm. This enabled removing major Raptor V2 leak paths by integrating parts and converting bolted joints to welded joints. This also integrated features like regenerative cooling which allowed for the deletion of the thermal protection system which had incurred excess weight and challenging maintenance access on the vehicle (rocket). Major efforts were made to integrate DFAM into the design early in the process to accelerate development and scale production reliably.
- Major contributor to one of the largest and most complex multi-disciplinary investigations from design, analysis, materials, additive, heat treat and engine test. Created advanced print files to accommodate major geometry changes and challenging closeout geometries, while eliminating print defects detected through designs of experiments, first article inspections and engine testing cut ups, then validated via CT, mount & polish and metallography.
- Deleted manual borescope of 100+ critical features for every unit by designing, testing and qualifying a top of the line powder removal system; a combination of two custom stations, one for bulk powder removal, one for fine powder removal. The tooling was simplified, robustified and automated for a 50% reduction in cycle time as well as deleting manual blowout. It was redesigned and requalified multiple times as the part/engine design changed, keeping the standard critically high.
- Developed custom python analysis and interactive dashboards (pre-AI) to analyze and qualify the full manufacturing process over 5+ years: powder, printer (both numerical and image), powder removal, heat treat, material property testing across 100s of parts over many years. Also created custom scripts to create patterned geometry for DOEs and print file log scrapping for diagnosing slicing bugs on the cluster. This included the qualification of onboarding a new heat treat process as well as producing parts with 98% yield on tensile properties.
- Produced 100+ released revisions of process instructions (engineering masters) to incorporate changes in everything from geometry changes, tooling changes, work order production feedback, and new industrial equipment
- Deleted the necessity for build plates and the laborious, time consuming and expensive cycle of refurbishing them. Deleted manual by-eye alignment during printer setup which negatively affected part yield due to machining non-clean up, through developing custom calibration and installation tooling/procedures.
- Reduced print time by 42 hrs (23%), equivalent to saving 2x printers ($4M), by qualifying 100um lasing parameters, increasing elongation properties and decreasing standard deviation, culminating in a first article cut up and inspection for critical features. Overcame major slicing software bugs and limitations by developing custom tools and working closely with vendor software and additive process teams.
Core Competencies4
- Led daily engineering/production print lab operational meetings to align on priorities and escalate blockers to management. Led monthly production alignment meetings to gather tech feedback and provide updates on engineering development and project rollouts.
- Mentored interns and onboarded new engineers. Made a solid effort to be engaged so that their experience was effective for them and impactful for the company.
- Additive POC, supporting cross functional efforts between design, analysis, additive, machining, materials, test and operations.
- Expedited new member’s impact as the engineering team was rebuilt by documenting and democratizing vast amounts of historical tribal knowledge and advanced experiences
Stratonics, Inc.
Systems Engineer & Data Analyst
Designer and manufacturer of thermal imaging sensors for in-situ meltpool diagnostics
- Designed & manufactured integrated sensor enclosures to implement in additive manufacturing equipment
- Developed front end software workflow from image calibration to acquisition and analysis
- Constructed, performed and analyzed design of experiments to evaluate lasing processes parameters combined with materials inspections
Purple Platypus
Application Engineer
Additive manufacturing technology center and diamond-level Stratasys reseller
- Qualified additive manufacturing applications, material selection, properties, dimensional accuracy and fit for aerospace, medical and industrial clients (FDM, PolyJet, etc.)
- Drove technology adoption by providing DFAM feedback, developing print files and cost analysis to support the sales team
- Minimized technical risk for large equipment sales by supporting pre-sales live demos, trade shows, and customer projects
Airwolf 3D
Lead Engineer & Technical Trainer
Designer and manufacturer of desktop FDM plastic 3D printing technology
- Scaled start-up from 4 to 25 employees and ~100× sales volume by driving engineering aspects of the company
- Delivered two engineering/utility patents for the design and manufacturing of the Airwolf 3D HD series printer: one for the overall system and one for the print head
- Expanded print material library to 15+ by performing design of experiments (DOEs) and parameter development, correlating process parameters with material performance
- Evaluated and qualified multiple slicing and print software platforms (Cura, Slic3r, Repetier-Host). Supported AstroPrint software feature development and rollout.
- Accelerated getting machines online and returning to production by creating and democratizing operational, calibration, maintenance and repair workflows. Authored five technical user manuals, co-developed Airwolf 3D’s Printing Encyclopedia and trained 150+ customers and internal team.
- Supported technical sales with many pre-sales live demos, trade shows, and customer projects
GROWit, LLC
Engineering Intern
Additive manufacturing service bureau from design to printing through post processing (incorporated into Forecast 3D)
- Learned the foundations of additive manufacturing technologies (FDM, PolyJet, SLS) as well as some traditional and post processing manufacturing practices (urethane molding, sanding, etc.)
- Post processed and hand finished parts to prepare for customer delivery
- Configured and fabricated heating control system for pressure pot to improve part quality
- Designed prototypes for small internal projects