Ruwan Ernst

Project Manager at Redwire Europe

Hoogstraten, Flemish Region, Belgium

About

Being always fascinated by the universe and particularly spaceflight, I decided early that I wanted to study and work in the field of aerospace engineering. Growing up in a town near Antwerp, Belgium, doing my university studies (completely in English) in Delft, the Netherlands and performing a nine month internship at EADS Astrium Space Transportation (now Airbus Defence and Space) in Bremen, Germany gave me the opportunity of living and working for prolonged time in three different countries, while meeting people from all over Europe gave me the practical experience to practice daily the usage of major important European languages such as English, French and German. In 2014 I obtained the Master of Science degree in Aerospace Engineering at Delft University of Technology (TU Delft) and have been working in the space industry ever since.

Experience

  • Redwire Europe (Kruibeke, Flemish Region, Belgium · Hybrid)
    • Project Manager
      Apr 2025 - Present · 1 yr 3 mos

      Project Manager for (larger) satellite projects. Technical Project Manager for (smaller) satellite projects which don't have a dedicated Systems Engineer; effectively combining the role of Project Manager and Systems Engineer in a single role.

    • Team Lead
      Dec 2022 - Mar 2026 · 3 yrs 4 mos

      Team Lead for the Satellite Systems Engineers. This role included resource management, guard over resource wellbeing and growth, facilitate knowledge sharing amongst team members and across engineering disciplines, creating team coherence and performing appraisal talks.

    • Systems Engineer
      Aug 2014 - Mar 2025 · 10 yrs 8 mos

      Multidisciplinary engineering role with project technical end responsibility where close collaboration internally with both project manager and technical experts and externally with the client is required. In this role I have, amongst other achievements, supported a full satellite assembly, integration and test campaign, as well as a full satellite launch campaign.

  • Intern at Airbus Defence and Space
    Sep 2012 - May 2013 · 9 mos

    Internship at the Propulsion Systems Department of then called EADS Astrium Space Transportation (now known as Airbus Defence and Space) in Bremen, Germany.

  • Student job at Evonik Degussa
    Jul 2008 - Jul 2008 · 1 mo

    Summer job at the shipment of hydrogen-peroxide facility.