David Schill

Lieutenant Colonel Schill is the 2025-2026 U.S. Space Force National Security Fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, Cambridge, Massachusetts. In his previous assignment, he was the Chief Engineer and Materiel Leader of the Vulcan Centaur Launch System, Assured Access to Space, Space Systems Command with duties at Patrick Space Force Base, Florida, where he led a geographically distributed team of 175 personnel, managing cost, schedule, and performance of the next-generation $2.5B Vulcan Centaur rocket development program as well as the rocket’s $8B launch execution manifest. As Chief Engineer, Lieutenant Colonel Schill directed all technical, programmatic, and operational activity for Space Systems Command to certify the Vulcan launch vehicle system as part of the $64B NSSL launch enterprise. 

Lieutenant Colonel Schill entered the Air Force in 2006 as a distinguished graduate from the United States Air Force  Academy, Colorado Springs, Colorado. He has held several engineering, program management, staff, and command positions throughout his career. In the engineering career field, he served as a spacecraft engineer, an infrastructure  engineer, and a lead systems engineer for space launch, advanced space control systems, special application technologies, and battle management command and control systems. His program management tours include the  execution of multi-billion-dollar contracts for Air Force Space Command and the National Reconnaissance Office, as  well as contract management for deployed contingency operations in Afghanistan. Additionally, Lieutenant Colonel Schill held staff positions as an executive officer for the 45th Launch Group and the U.S. Air Force Scientific Advisory  Board, and as a foreign liaison officer at the Defense Intelligence Agency. Prior to his Chief Engineer position, he was  the Commander, 5th Space Launch Squadron, Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida.