Indian Railways to SpaceX: IIT Roorkee Sanjeev Sharma's Inspiring Journey

Sanjeev Sharma, an alumnus of the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Roorkee, has captured the attention of the internet with his remarkable career journey from Indian Railways to a prominent role at Elon Musk’s SpaceX. His LinkedIn profile, which has gone viral on social media, has been widely praised as “inspirational” and “unbelievable.”

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Sharma began his career as a Divisional Mechanical Engineer with Indian Railways, steadily rising to become Deputy Chief Mechanical Engineer, a position he held for over 11 years. However, driven by his ambitions, he pursued higher education and enrolled in a Master’s program in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Colorado Boulder in 2002, which launched his international career.

In 2003, Sharma joined Seagate Technology as a Senior Mechanical Engineer, contributing to the tech giant for five years. During this time, he also earned an MS in Management of Technology from the University of Minnesota.

The turning point in Sharma’s career came in 2013 when he joined SpaceX as a Dynamics Engineer. At SpaceX, he played a key role in the recovery and reusability of Falcon 9 rocket boosters, cementing his reputation as a stellar engineer.

Sharma later led projects at Matternet Inc., before returning to SpaceX in 2022 as a Principal Engineer for Starship Dynamics, continuing to shape the future of space exploration.