Syracuse University Citrus Racing engineers land SpaceX jobs after student team success

Two Syracuse University engineering graduates are heading to SpaceX this summer, and the common thread is a student-built race car that taught them how to design, build and test under real pressure.

Ryan Brennan ’26 and Zach Freyman ’26 have accepted positions with the aerospace company after years with Citrus Racing, Syracuse University’s fully student-run Formula SAE team. Brennan served as Electrical & Embedded lead, while Freyman was one of the team’s chief engineers, putting both students at the center of the club’s technical work before graduation.

The timing gives the hires added weight on campus and across Onondaga County. Syracuse University conferred degrees on about 6,679 candidates at its 2026 Commencement ceremony on May 10 in the JMA Wireless Dome, and the SpaceX offers stand out as a visible example of where a Syracuse engineering degree can lead. SpaceX says it designs, manufactures and launches advanced rockets and spacecraft, making it the kind of employer that values hands-on systems experience as much as classroom theory.

Citrus Racing builds small-scale formula cars each year and takes them to Michigan Formula SAE in May, where teams from across the country are judged on design, budgeting and performance. The competition is also a test of engineering discipline, safety, power, aerodynamics, business and budgeting. Citrus Racing competes on a two-year cycle, one year focused on design and fabrication and the next on testing, rather than racing every season. Chief engineer Joey Lodato has described that progression as the path students move through inside the team.

The club’s history stretches back decades at Syracuse, with roots on campus in the 1950s through 1980s, a revival in the late 1980s, and successful competition years in 1994, 1996, 1997 and 2000. A 2003 SU Racing Club car later helped restart the program, and the team rebranded as Citrus Racing in Fall 2013. Today, the team says it has existed in its current form since 2009 and continues to work on both internal combustion and electric drivetrain cars.

That mix of engineering, media, marketing and business roles is part of what makes Citrus Racing a workforce pipeline, not just an extracurricular. For Syracuse families weighing the value of STEM education in Central New York, Brennan and Freyman show how a campus garage project can become a direct line to one of the most competitive technical employers in the country.