I'm a systems engineer at Draper, working from Holliston, Massachusetts, on the models, requirements, and interface definitions that missile defense, guidance, and space programs are built and tested against, and increasingly on the Python tooling that checks that work automatically so the people reviewing it can spend their attention on the judgment calls. There's more about how I got here on my About page.
Selected work
Tracing requirements with NLP
On Blue Origin’s Sustaining Lunar Development program, I built an explainable NLP pipeline that ranks likely JAMA requirement traces for SysML model activities and grades requirements against INCOSE writing rules, then measured it against our team’s manual traces and reported where it fell short.
An architecture description for guidance system test cells
A four-view ISO/IEC/IEEE 42010 architecture description in SysML for the Trident II D5LE2 MK 8 guidance system’s integration and test cells, proved on one cell with a walkthrough reviewers could follow, then applied across the priority cells and carried into System Functional Review.
Interface control on a defense space program
How I structure and run interface control for Draper’s part of a defense space program, keeping what an interface is separate from why it is that way, so a working draft can be walked to a baseline one value at a time.
Requirements a pipeline can verify
I turned a 32-line informal requirements list for a guidance-system simulation into a traced, reviewed draft specification that separates how each requirement is verified from when a CI pipeline could check it, and that judges fidelity before real-system data exists.
Programs
The short version of where I’ve worked, with the full detail in my resume.
- Defense space program – Interface Control Manager, owning the avionics specification and ICDs, modeling the system against the government reference architecture, and decomposing functions from L3 to L4
- Trident II D5LE2 MK 8 Guidance System – MBSE lead for the integration and test cells, and author of the guidance system CONOPS, which I took through 26 reviewers and 144 comments
- Blue Origin lunar lander – MBSE for human and cargo landing CONOPS, modeling liaison for on-orbit refueling, and the NLP traceability pipeline
- DARPA Otter VLEO satellite – 200+ system and subsystem requirements and the ICDs behind them for the System Requirements Review
- Conventional Prompt Strike – Trade studies for M-Code GPS receiver integration ahead of successful flight tests in 2024 and 2025
- U.S. Navy robotics at Boston Engineering – Automated coating QA for flight decks, hull inspection, USV anchoring, and an EOD tether-management ROV
- U.S. Air Force, 2016–2021 – Launch facility engineering and vehicle integration at Vandenberg, then base-defense acquisition at Hanscom, leaving as a Captain
Side projects
ShipWall
A live AIS ship-traffic display I built and operate solo at my family’s cottage on the St. Lawrence Seaway, with three layers of watchdogs, gated deploys, and a 20-entry incident log.
An orbital factory, modeled
My Johns Hopkins capstone, an MBSE-driven concept for automated ZBLAN fiber production in orbit, with the full SysML model published to click through.
The Holliston Ledger
An independent civic news publication on my town’s government, backed by a pipeline that transcribes unminuted board meetings for human fact-checking.
How I work
A few habits run through most of the projects on this site, each with links to where it shows up.
Make the reasoning easy to inspect. I keep the why beside the what so the next person can check a decision for themselves, whether that means a rationale document and an open-items ledger behind every interface value, an explanation behind every match an automated tool proposes, or a trace from each requirement back to the need it serves. See interface control and tracing requirements with NLP.
Prove it small before asking anyone to adopt it. I build a working example on real material first, walk reviewers through it end to end, and propose the larger version only after it has held up. See the test cell architecture and tracing requirements with NLP.
Trust a check only after you have seen it fail. I plant defects in my own checks before relying on them, watch the output people actually see as well as the processes behind it, and treat a recovery path as untested until it has rebuilt something real. See requirements a pipeline can verify and ShipWall.
Say what the evidence shows, at the level it shows it. I say plainly whether something is draft or baselined, estimated or measured, a ranked suggestion or a decision, an unreviewed recording or approved minutes, so that a document or a tool stays trusted after the first hard question. See tracing requirements with NLP, requirements a pipeline can verify, and the Holliston Ledger.
Agree on the interface before building either side. Settling the contract first lets each side be built and tested on its own, whether the contract is a controlled interface document, a proxy port typed from the design authority’s ICD, or a browser mock that a display’s firmware had to match pixel for pixel. See interface control, the test cell architecture, and ShipWall.
Get in touch
The fastest way to reach me is email, at grimsley.ben@gmail.com, and I’m also on LinkedIn and GitHub.