Mauricio A. Rivas

Mauricio A. Rivas is a project manager in the Programs and Projects Directorate at NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California. He currently supports the Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) project as the associate project manager for Armstrong and is the primary interface between the center and the project regarding risk, schedule, budget and staffing to support Armstrong work packages.

Previously, Rivas was the project manager for the Unmanned Aircraft System Integration in the National Airspace System (UAS-NAS) project. In that role, Rivas completed the execution and closeout of the successful 10-year project, including the transfer of data, analyses and technical reports developed by NASA and its partners. The UAS-NAS project informed the development of minimum operational performance standards addressing areas critical to enable UAS operation in the NAS.

Rivas also supported the UAS-NAS project earlier as the Integrated Test and Evaluation subproject manager. In that position, Rivas was responsible for integrating simulation and flight tests in support of UAS-NAS.

Prior to his role with the UAS-NAS project, Rivas was the project manager for the Ikhana UAS, a civilian MQ-9 Predator B used for science missions, aeronautics research and technology development. Between 2014 and 2017, the Ikhana was the primary test bed for the UAS-NAS project.

In a prior management position, Rivas supported the Constellation Program Test and Evaluation Office at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, where he oversaw the development of test requirements for future spacecraft and rockets. He also supported the Constellation Program while working for the Exploration Systems Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington. While at headquarters, Rivas also supported the Program Analysis and Evaluation Office.

Rivas first came to Armstrong (then Dryden Flight Research Facility) in 1990 as a co-op student. He was hired full-time in 1992 as an operations engineer and was responsible for the integration of research systems onto NASA aircraft. He conducted research and technology development missions on NASA’s F-18 aircraft, the Pathfinder solar-powered aircraft, and the solar-electric Helios remotely piloted flying wing aircraft.

Rivas earned a Bachelor of Science in electrical engineering with a minor in business administration and a Master of Science in systems architecting and engineering from the University of Southern California. As a visiting instructor, Rivas taught graduate courses in project management and systems engineering at California State University, Northridge.