A Day in the Life of an Engineer

When she graduated from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University’s Aerospace Engineering program, Anna Bartz (’21) felt confident that Embry-Riddle had been the right choice and set her on a path for success.

“I had visited a few schools with ‘Aerospace Engineering’ degrees, but they were basically Mechanical Engineering degrees with one or two classes that were truly aerospace focused,” she shared. “I knew even before I started college that I wanted to become an aerospace engineer, and after looking at the course list and seeing how specialized it was compared to the other schools, I knew I would be getting the education I wanted from Embry-Riddle.”

During her time as an undergraduate, Bartz was involved in a number of organizations around campus, including the Society of Women Engineers (SWE), Delta Phi Epsilon Sorority, Tau Beta Pi Engineering Honor Society, Sigma Gamma Tau Aerospace Honor Society and Order of Omega Honor Society.

“I was sponsored by the Prescott Campus’s SWE chapter to attend the SWE conference my junior year,” she said. “During the conference, I interviewed with recruiters from various aerospace companies and was offered internships by three companies. I got to put my interviewing, elevator pitch and resume skills to the test for the first time — coming out successful was amazing.”

When searching for full-time post-graduate roles, Bartz knew that she wanted to combine her childhood love for space travel with her knowledge and skills in engineering. She accepted a position as a test engineer with Northrop Grumman and soon realized it was something she was passionate about, carrying her love for test engineering to her new role at Blue Origin.

Bartz’s first role at Blue Origin was as a component test engineer for the company’s New Glenn program, a reusable rocket built to operate like commercial airliners. In August, Bartz transitioned to work as a system test engineer on Blue Origin’s Lunar Fuel Cell team.

What is a typical day in your life at Blue Origin?

A typical day in my life starts with getting my paperwork done before our daily stand-up meetings and before a lot of people get to the office. This is when I like to get a lot of test planning done, including writing test procedures, working on P&IDs (piping and instrumentation diagrams) and designing/procuring test equipment.

After the stand-up meeting, I’ll usually go to the test facility and spend most of the day working on building up the test stand I’ve designed or on tasks to stand up a new testing facility.

Throughout the day, I'll collaborate with responsible engineers to discuss the necessary testing for their components and ways to design the test stand and test procedures to verify the outlined requirements of the component.

I’ll also work with facility program managers and the harnessing and programming group to verify that the building upgrades meet the necessary testing objectives and that the test facility console is being designed to meet requirements.

What is your favorite part of being a test engineer?

My favorite part of being a test engineer is conducting the test and utilizing the results to improve the manufacturing/design of the part or system. As a test engineer, you really get to know the hardware and have a big impact in making the project successful.

In my last role, I referred to myself as the valve therapist because I understood all the valve’s quirks, allowing me to communicate to the design and build teams what improvements were needed to make the valve happy (i.e., work correctly). I also love that at Blue Origin, test engineering is very hands on, which gets me away from my desk.

One of the best parts of my career so far was watching Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket launch for the first time. I was a part of the team that built the first rocket, and watching it launch successfully is something that will live in my mind forever.

It was an amazing full-circle moment for me — being a 13-year-old admiring the Saturn V mockup at the National Air and Space Museum, dreaming about building a rocket someday and then being a 25-year-old part of the team that made history with the successful launch of NG-1. It was a dream come true.