Integration & Test Engineer · Boston, MA

Hi, I'm Jason. I make complex systems work together.

I'm an aerospace engineer at Draper, where I lead integration and test for navigation and guidance hardware. Off the clock I sail on the Charles, read widely, and design and 3D print gifts for friends.

See my work Resume

B.S. & M.S. Aerospace Engineering, WPI
6+ years in integration & test
From East Hampton, NY

Jason Karlin in cap and gown at his WPI graduation

Principles

My mission

I strive to maintain my physical, mental, and financial well-being through discipline.
I will be a reliable partner in all my relationships, both personal and professional.
I will be a listener and sounding board for friends and family.
I will work hard in my professional life and take the initiative in all of my affairs.

About

From radar in the field to guidance in the lab

I'm an Integration and Test Task Lead at the Charles Stark Draper Laboratory. I own the budget, schedule, and verification approach for a navigation and guidance subsystem flight experiment, and I keep a legacy real-time IMU simulation healthy for hardware-in-the-loop testing.

Before Draper I spent four and a half years at Raytheon. I started as a systems test engineer and agile product owner in Woburn, then deployed to the CENTCOM theater as the forward-positioned systems engineer for a fielded radar system. That's where I learned to troubleshoot fast when the customer is standing right next to you.

I earned my bachelor's and master's degrees in Aerospace Engineering from Worcester Polytechnic Institute in 2020 and have lived in Boston ever since.

Selected work

Projects

Aircraft design, engineering software, and things I've built.

Fixed-wing VTOL UAV prototype resting on grass

Aircraft design
Stability

VTOL package-delivery UAV

My WPI capstone: a 3 kg vertical-takeoff delivery drone, from airfoil wind-tunnel tests to the stability fixes that made it fly.

Hand-drawn three-view sketch of the Savegull UAV

In progress
UAV

Project Savegull

A long-range surveillance UAV concept to help ocean lifeguards spot swimmers caught in rip currents.

Python
NumPy
Tkinter

Aircraft design tool

I ported my MATLAB design scripts to Python and wrapped them in a GUI for fast trade studies.

All projects →

Off the clock

Beyond work

Small sailboats racing on the Charles River basin in front of the Boston skyline

Sailing

Former USA Sailing instructor. These days I race and teach friends at Community Boating on the Charles.

Reading

Science fiction, history, and business. Here's everything I've read since 2021.

3D printing

Self-taught in Fusion 360. I design and print gifts, party favors, and the occasional airfoil.