Brigette Oakes completed her Master’s degree at Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics. Now she is the vice president of engineering at Firefly Aerospace.
Perimeter Institute alumni have gone on to a wide variety of roles after leaving the Institute. Brigitte Oakes has always toggled two worlds: hardware and software, physics and engineering. As the VP of engineering at Firefly Aerospace she’s doing the same, building rockets and also building teams that can push the boundaries of what’s possible. We reached out to Brigette to learn more about her journey.
This interview has been lightly edited for clarity and length.
What is your current role, and how are you trying to push boundaries in your field?
I'm currently the Vice President of Engineering at Firefly Aerospace, where we’re not just launching rockets – we’re pushing the edges of what’s been tested, flown, or landed before. Most recently, that meant delivering the first successful commercial lunar lander with Blue Ghost, which included developing, qualifying, and flying a brand-new landing engine in just two years. We're also designing a reusable rocket for our Medium Launch Vehicle, scaling advanced composite structures, fielding engine cycles that haven’t flown to orbit before, and building software platforms that enable on-orbit edge computing and predictive analytics.
And we’re doing all of this with a team of 200 engineers across four programs – most of whom only recently graduated from university. My recent focus has been on mentoring and investing in these teams to take on hard, open-ended problems, many of which have no playbook. That’s where I’ve found the real impact isn’t in a single breakthrough – it’s in building teams that can connect ideas across disciplines, adapt fast, and push forward together. Before Firefly, I worked on reusable rocketry at SpaceX, but what drives me now is building the kind of team that can do the things that haven’t been done before.
What brought you to where you are now?
What brought me here is a mix of relentless curiosity, a circuitous path, and people who believed in me. I didn’t follow a traditional route – I've moved between academia and industry, hardware and software, stepping into whatever role lets me tackle the hardest problems. I thrive when things are messy, multi-faceted, and haven’t been done before. I’m not afraid to take an unconventional path if it gets us closer to the goal. I’ve had mentors who pushed me, teammates who had my back, and leaders who gave me room to grow. I stayed focused on the bigger mission: pushing the boundaries of space, and followed the work that challenged me and made an impact. That mindset – and the people around me – are what I credit most for where I am now.
What are you passionate about?
Outside of work, I’m a parent and an endlessly curious human. I love hanging out with my kids – watching how their brains work and coming up with new ways to follow whatever weird or wonderful thing they’re into. I like building and making things, whether that’s picking up a random new skill, diving into a side project, or just figuring out how something works. I’m always exploring – languages, neuroscience, how stuff is made, anything that sparks a question. I love solving problems and finding ways to make things better, easier, or just more fun. I try to balance being connected with also needing time to recharge, so I’ve gotten back into letter writing and hands-on hobbies that let me slow down. If I use something every day, I want to know how it works – and if I can make it myself, I probably will.
How has your work impacted your industry and community?
The recent lunar landing mission had a far-reaching impact – not just technically, but culturally. We hosted ten university, NASA, and research payloads, expanding access to lunar science for institutions that rarely get a seat at the table. Since the landing, I’ve received messages from students, educators, and community members who said it made space feel within reach for the first time. One of the most powerful moments was the view into our control room – a diverse team working together to make history. That glimpse represented a much larger, four-year effort by people from all backgrounds.
Even for me, this shift is personal. When I graduated from Perimeter Institute in 2012 and joined SpaceX, I was the first woman hired into my department. In my second role – again, the first woman. At Firefly, I’m now surrounded by women across every discipline, including leadership. But the change goes beyond gender – it’s about who sees themselves in this field and who gets the opportunity to shape it.
How do you give back to your community?
It’s natural for me to focus on the technical – but the reason we made it this far is because of the team. We landed on the Moon with a group largely made up of engineers fresh out of university, doing things they’d never done before. To succeed, we didn’t just need new technology – we needed to grow and mentor a team capable of building it from scratch. When I joined Firefly, experienced engineers were few, so I focused on building external partnerships with universities, companies, and former colleagues to help extend my reach and accelerate learning.
A great example: our Blue Ghost landing engines were originally outsourced, but the Ukraine war forced us to pivot. As the Propulsion Director at the time, I led the creation of an internal program to design, build, test, and fly 8x 200N hypergolic engines – something Firefly had never done. We kicked it off in mid-2022 and had flight-qualified engines by the following year. No other company has turned around a development like that so quickly. The team was led by Ryan Cole, in his mid-twenties, with only four others. This is just one of many examples across Firefly’s programs where mentorship, trust, and inclusive leadership turned what seemed impossible into reality.