From Coast to Coast
Elias joined Janicki as a project engineer just under two years ago, drawn north by something he couldn’t find in his home state of Florida: mountains. He found Janicki through a simple Google search, and what started as a search for a change of scenery turned into a role that has kept him hands-on, challenged, and constantly learning.
He holds a degree in aerospace and space engineering, with a minor in international politics. That background gave him the technical foundation for the work, but it was the promise of a different landscape and a different pace of life that first caught his attention. Janicki offered both: a serious aerospace program and easy access to the mountains he’d been missing.
Project Engineer at Janicki
Elias works on a final assembly for an autonomous drone program where he develops build plans, verifies activities, and assesses technical risk for the drone assembly. Before moving into this role, he worked as a nondestructive inspection (NDI) engineer, responsible for developing and overseeing inspection of space and flight hardware. That job took him from the earliest engineering handoff all the way through to NDI-ready hardware, covering everything from fixture design to technique generation to programming the robotics that carried it out.
For Elias, the best part of the job is the range of it: hands-on work paired with a wide scope of responsibility, alongside people who are just as invested in getting it right. His favorite project so far has been the drone program, where the detailed nature of the assembly work has given him the chance to dig deep into the kind of precision engineering that drew him to the field in the first place.
Outside of Work
Elias is an avid mountain climber, taking on lead and trad routes, and he grew up sailing back home in Florida. He’s currently working toward his fixed-wing pilot’s license, and when he’s not in the air or on a route, he’s likely under the hood of one of his three project cars: a ’91 Nissan S13, an ’87 Porsche 924, and an ’87 Kawasaki Ninja. Fewer people know that Elias spent eight years as an equestrian, a detail that doesn’t often come up next to the climbing and the wrenching but rounds out a life built around discipline and doing things with his hands.
Adventurous, passionate, and mechanically inclined, by his own description, Elias brings that same energy to the shop floor as he does to a mountain route or a stripped-down engine bay. In under two years, he’s taken on real ownership of the drone program assembly, and we’re glad to have him on the team.
Interested in a project engineering role? We’re hiring – visit our Job Openings page to apply.