Peter Kunz Senior Chief Engineer, Unpiloted Systems, Engineering, Test & Technology, The Boeing Company Chief Engineer, Boeing NeXt

Pete Kunz is the Senior Chief Engineer for Unpiloted Systems in Boeing’s Enterprise, Test & Technology division, as well as Chief Engineer for Boeing NeXt, a business division building the ecosystem that will define the future of urban, regional and global mobility. Boeing NeXt builds and incubates new mobility solutions and the next-generation ecosystem that will bring flight closer to home.

Kunz has chief engineering responsibilities, along with sign-off authority, for the safe development of autonomous systems, across the company. This includes guiding the development of common technology. He will work closely with all of Boeing’s autonomous platform programs and businesses: air, ground and maritime, as well as with Boeing Commercial Airplanes and Boeing Defense, Space & Security.

Before coming to Boeing, Kunz was chief technology officer of Insitu, Inc., which produces the ScanEagle and Integrator unmanned aerial systems (UAS). In that role, he was responsible for Insitu’s research and development investments, oversight of the product and intellectual property portfolios, and leadership of Insitu’s technical experts and product-line chief engineers.

Kunz’s broad background in aerospace engineering includes formal training and practical experience in various aspects of the analysis, design and testing of unmanned flight vehicles, and field experience with the rapid real-world evaluation of new technologies and prototypes. Prior to joining Insitu, Kunz was a senior engineer with Exponent Inc., where he worked primarily on the development and field evaluation of unmanned air vehicles and force protection technologies, including a field consulting role for the U.S. Army Rapid Equipping Force in Afghanistan.

Kunz has a doctorate in aeronautics and astronautics from Stanford University, as well as master’s and bachelor’s degrees in aerospace engineering from Pennsylvania State University.