Jinwook Lee

About Jinwook Lee

Passionate engineering problem solver with Ph.D. in air-breathing propulsion from MIT. Received two ASME Turbo Expo Best Paper Awards in 2022 and the highest honor in the field of gas turbine research, the ASME Gas Turbine Award, in 2023. Worked for SpaceX designing inducers with suction performance and reliability beyond all reported levels in open literature. Specialized in leading full-cycle engineering projects consisting of:(i) Identification of governing parameters;(ii) Development of numerical model with hypothetical governing Design and fabrication of experiments for hypothesis assessment within tight budget and timeline constraints; and,(iv) Establishment and implementation of innovative design guidelines under rapid and dynamic environment Excelled in versatile engineering skills covering both numerical and experimental approaches through 12 years of research and development experience in aerospace. Expertise spans deflagration-to-detonation of high-explosive materials, unsteady pulsating flow aerothermodynamics in turbocharger turbines, ultra-low turbulence wind tunnel designs, laminar-to-turbulent transition on aircraft engine fan blades, surface dimple aerodynamics in golf balls, and cavitation dynamics and suction performance of turbopump inducers. And, currently.

Experience

1. Founder and CEO

   Stealth Startup

   Jan 2024 — Present · Pittsburgh, PA, US

   Currently Actively Hiring mission is to unlock a new level of scalability of our civilization by automating mechanical design processes using AI. We are a stealth mode startup that raised pre-seed round in October 2024.You possess:• Exceptional resilience, ownership, initiative, and a problem-solving mindset, even under pressure.• Willingness to work extended hours, including weekends, when necessary to meet critical deadlines.• Eagerness to engage with diverse technical areas across multiple disciplines.• Outstanding teamwork to collaboratively tackle interdisciplinary engineering challenges alongside colleagues from diverse backgrounds at an exceptionally fast pace.Senior Full-Stack EngineerMust-Have• 5+ years of hands-on experience envisioning, building, and shipping full stack web applications at production scale, with the confidence and independence to act as the foundational engineer• Expert-level fluency in JavaScript or TypeScript, React/Electron (or comparable frameworks), and strong fundamentals in HTML and CSS, enabling rapid frontend delivery across both web and desktop environments without handholding.• Proficiency in backend development using Python or Node.js, with the ability to design, build, and deploy robust, scalable systems end to end.• Operational fluency with modern cloud platforms such as AWS or GCP, and infrastructure tooling like Docker, Kubernetes, and CI/CD pipelines, to ship confidently and continuously.• Strong systems thinking and architectural ownership, with the maturity to make forward-compatible decisions under ambiguous or fast-changing constraints.• Extreme urgency and bias toward action, with a history of operating independently in high-stakes environments, making calls, solving problems, and owning outcomes.• Clear, high-bandwidth communication and the ability to translate product vision and domain insights into executable plans, especially when working with non-software teammates.

Education

• Seoul National University

  Bachelor's degree, Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering

  2007 — 2013

• Massachusetts Institute of Technology

  Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Aerospace, Aeronautical and Astronautical Engineering

  2015 — 2019

• Massachusetts Institute of Technology

  Master’s Degree, Aerospace, Aeronautical and Astronautical Engineering

  2013 — 2015