Today’s Talent Pool

  1. Oleg Pylnev in Montana (Potential Founder)

    1. Role: Sr. Director @ SpaceX (1 yr)

    2. Other Experience: Chief AI Officer & CTO @ BuildOps ($226M from Meritech, BOND, Fika Ventures, Founders Fund, 01 Advisors), CTO @ Emotive ($50M from Mucker Capital, TenOneTen Ventures), CTO @ The Honest Company (NASDAQ: HNST), CTO @ Carenote, Engineering Lead @ Dreamworks Animation, Director of Engineering @ MySpace

    3. Description: Left BuildOps on 2/25

  2. Tom Robinson in US (Potential Founder)

    1. Role: Principal Software Engineer @ SpaceX (5 yrs)

    2. Other Experience: Founding Engineer @ Metabase ($42M from NEA, Insight), Sr SW Architect @ Motorola Mobility, Founder @ 280 North (backed by YC, Paul Graham, Chris Sacca —> acquired by Motorola), USC MS & BS CS

    3. Description: On career break since 6/25

    4. Contact: Site, Twitter

  3. David Giger in LA (Potential Founder)

    1. Role: Senior Director Dragon Engineering @ SpaceX (13 yrs)

    2. Other Experience: VP Engineering @ Relativity Space, Co-Founder & Partner @ Global Space Ventures, UC Berkeley MS ME

    3. Description: Left Relativity Space in 2023 with no updates

  4. Erin Cialdella in LA (Potential Founder)

    1. Role: Manager Avionics Systems & Falcon Product Lead @ SpaceX (10 yrs)

    2. Other Experience: Automation Engineering Intern @ Honeywell Aerospace, UW BS EE

    3. Description: Career break since 11/25

  5. Zac Valles in SF (CPO & Co-Founder @ Fort)

    1. Role: Starlink & Propulsion Intern @ SpaceX (<1 yr)

    2. Other Experience: Sr. Engineer @ Tesla, Research @ NASA JPL, UMich MS Aerospace

    3. Description: “Fort is building the most comprehensive personal health tracker on the market.”

    4. Funding: YC W26

  6. Cooper McBride in Seattle (Co-Founder @ Kyten)

    1. Role: Manager Hardware Test Engineering @ SpaceX (3.5 yrs)

    2. Other Experience: Sr. Manager Test Engineering @ Shield AI, Electrical Engineer Power Systems @ Boeing, Intern @ Tesla, UW BS EE

    3. Description: "Custom Aerospace-Grade Battery Packs in weeks, not years"

    4. Funding: YC W26

  7. Richard Hwang in SF (Stealth)

    1. Role: SWE Intern @ SpaceX (<1 yr)

    2. Other Experience: EM & 60th FTE @ DoorDash, Co-Founder @ Lightski (YC W23), SWE @ C3 AI, UC Berkeley BS EECS

    3. Description: “Building”

  8. Anthony Tafoya in SF (Potential Founder)

    1. Role: SWE Intern @ SpaceX (<1 yr)

    2. Other Experience: MTS Intern @ OpenAI, Student Researcher @ Google, UC Berkeley EECS + Business M.E.T.

    3. Description: Berkeley class of ‘26

  9. Kevin Xu in Chicago (Potential Founder)

    1. Role: Software Engineer @ SpaceX (<1 yr)

    2. Other Experience: SWE @ Crusoe, ML Engineer @ vijil, SWE @ Uber, ML Research Assistant @ University of Michigan

    3. Description: Neo Scholar Finalist since 8/25

    4. Contact: Site, [email protected]

  10. Puxiao Wang in Sunnyvale (Founder @ Leva Aerospace)

    1. Role: Propulsion Engineer @ SpaceX (7 yrs)

    2. Other Experience: Stanford MS Aerospace Engineering

    3. Description: “First flight 2027”

  11. Cameron Buccellato in Mountain View (Co-Founder @ Ballista Labs)

    1. Role: Launch Engineer @ SpaceX (1 yr)

    2. Other Experience: Fluids System Design Engineer @ TerraPower, Fluid Systems Engineer @ Blue Origin, Chief Engineer @ UMich MASA rocketry, UMich BE Aero

    3. Description: "Claude Code for hardware"

  12. Calvin H Lin in SF (Stealth)

    1. Role: Propulsion & Power Electronics Engineer @ SpaceX (<1 yr)

    2. Other Experience: Power Electronics Engineer @ Astranis, Research Intern @ NASA JPL, Stanford PhD & MS & BS EE

    3. Description: Stealth since 12/25

    4. Contact: [email protected]

  13. Greg Sarandi in NYC (Stealth)

    1. Role: Ops Intern @ SpaceX (<1 yr)

    2. Other Experience: Strategic Project Lead @ Scale AI, BD @ Polymarket, Systems Engineering Intern @ Northrop Grumman, USC BS

    3. Description: "Rethinking sports markets through continuous-resolution financial derivatives"

  14. Elias Bello in Seattle (Potential Founder)

    1. Role: Lead Hardware Development Engineer @ SpaceX (4 yrs)

    2. Other Experience: RF/DSP Engineer @ MIT Lincoln Laboratory, Researcher @ Thayer School of Engineering at Dartmouth, Dartmouth BE Electrical Engineering

    3. Description: Left SpaceX on 2/26

  15. Roman Stolyarov, PhD in Boston (CEO & Founder @ Lambda Surgical)

    1. Role: Avionics Engineer Intern @ SpaceX (<1 yr)

    2. Other Experience: Chief Product Officer @ Zeta Surgical, MIT PhD Medical Engineering & Medical Physics, SPC Fellow

    3. Description: "Physical Intelligence for Surgery"

    4. Contact: [email protected]

  16. Zack Rubin in Long Beach (Potential Founder)

    1. Role: Structures & Dynamics Engineer @ SpaceX (5 yrs)

    2. Other Experience: SVP Manufacturing & Supply Chain @ Relativity Space, Flight Test Director @ Virgin Orbit

    3. Description: Sabbatical since 9/25

  17. Sergey Negrashov in Redmond (Stealth)

    1. Role: Lead Software Engineer @ SpaceX (5.5 yrs)

    2. Description: Stealth since 1/26

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