Howard Eisen
Deputy Associate Lab Director for Flight Projects & Mission Success
Howard Eisen was appointed Deputy Associate Lab Director for Flight Projects & Mission Success in March 2026, and has served as JPL’s Chief Engineer since April 2024. He provides institutional oversight for flight projects and instruments with a strong focus on engineering excellence and disciplined execution. He is also the manager of JPL’s Office of Project Engineering and Management (OPEM).
A JPL Fellow, Howard has nearly 40 years of technical and leadership experience at the Lab. Previously, he served as Chief Engineer for the Planetary Science Directorate, Deputy Project Manager for the Asteroid Redirect Robotic Mission, Flight System Manager for the Mars 2020/Perseverance rover and Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, Project Manager for the International Space Station Rapid Scatterometer mission, and Deputy Flight System Manager for the Mars Science Laboratory/Curiosity rover. He has developed proposals, spacecraft, and instruments and demonstrated new technologies for a variety of targets including Earth-observing radars; Mars orbiters, landers, rovers, and rotorcraft; and missions to other planetary bodies with leadership roles in Class A, B, C, D projects and tech demos including multiple Shuttle and International Space Station missions.
Howard holds a master’s degree in aerospace systems and bachelor’s degrees in astronautics/avionics and physics from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, as well as a master’s in business administration from the University of Redlands. He is a recipient of the Silver Snoopy from the crew of space shuttle mission STS-99 which deployed the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) in 2000.