Sydney Lizarazo

About Sydney Lizarazo

I am a mechanical engineer with experience in a variety of fields including the automotive and aerospace industries, with varying positions from facilities, to design, testing and validation. I am currently a Staff Propulsion Development Engineer at Astra, where I am the test lead for the Rocket 4 First Stage Engine program. My primary responsibilities are planning and delivering the engine system from preliminary development testing through qualification for flight. I also manage writing various data analysis scripts to efficiently process test data and maintain an engine balance model to predict system behavior and performance during testing. While my current position is mainly focused on test and analysis, I also have significant experience as a design engineer. During my first two years at Astra, I designed the mechanical structure for a high voltage battery system, from initial concept through final design. This involved determining requirements, coordinating with other teams to accommodate packaging constraint of the vehicle, and determining loads and conducting FEA. Once the final design was complete, I also supported bringing the battery system through manufacturing for the first several vehicles before handing off to the production team.In school I was the mechanical lead of the Electric Vehicle Team, where we build and race an electric motorcycle. During my time on the team, I oversaw sub-frame redesigns, composite part manufacturing, battery pack design, and many other projects. In addition, my senior design project was to design and build a liquid cooled battery pack for the motorcycle, of which I was the lead engineer.

Experience

1. Senior Propulsion Engineer

   Astranis Space Technologies

   Apr 2025 — Present

Education

• Sparta High School

  High School Diploma

  2009 — 2013

• Rochester Institute of Technology

  Bachelor of Science/Master of Engineering, Mechanical Engineering

  2013 — 2018

Skills

• Autodesk Inventor
• Autocad
• Drill Press
• Lathe
• Vertical Mill
• Microsoft Office
• Ptc Creo
• Solidworks
• Research
• Matlab