Employee Spotlight Blog | Erich Ward

A Passion for Building, a Career in Propulsion

Long before Erich began working in aerospace, he was drawn to understanding how things work.

Rewinding a bit to where things began. In middle and high school, he participated in robotics and electronics extracurriculars. In 2008, he won a state Science Olympiad competition after building an ultralight, rubber-band-powered airplane that remained airborne for more than three minutes.

That early interest in building and experimenting extended beyond the classroom. Before completing college, he spent 10 years working as a bicycle technician. Outside of work, he continues to enjoy working on cars and racing karts.

After spending 10 years in the bicycle industry, Erich earned his degree in aerospace engineering. This experience and education blazed a clear path that eventually led him into aerospace, where he worked as a mechanical test engineer and propulsion systems integration engineer. Those roles gave him experience in the development, qualification, and acceptance testing of components used in spacecraft propulsion systems.

When he discovered Agile on LinkedIn, he was intrigued by the company's ability to bring propulsion design, manufacturing, and testing together.

"I was immediately impressed by the amount of internal production and vertical integration."

Agile offered a natural next step for Erich: a chance to leverage his technical background across different disciplines while contributing directly to the development and testing of spacecraft propulsion technology. There was another compelling reason to explore the opportunity. Agile is located in Durango, Colorado.

A Return to Durango

For Erich, accepting a position at Agile also meant returning to a place he'd wanted to call home for more than a decade.

In 2013, he attended Fort Lewis College, the local school in Durango, for a semester before a family illness required him to leave partway through the school year. Although his time in Durango was brief, the experience made a lasting impression.

"I felt like I never got to finish that chapter of my life."

Years later, discovering Agile allowed him to fulfill this dream of coming back to this incredible place in the mountains.

He relocated from Denver to join the company's test engineering team, bringing together two things he'd been seeking: challenging engineering work and the chance to make Durango home.

He's wasted little time embracing the community. Outside of work, Erich enjoys camping, hiking, fly fishing, and exploring off-road trails with his dog. He's also become involved in Durango's disc golf community, taking advantage of the area's variety of courses.

"It's hard to believe months have already passed since I moved here; it feels like it was yesterday," he said.