--- alias: - Joshua Logan Grumbach - Joshua L. Grumbach - Dr. Logan Grumbach category: People created: 2026-10-03 location: Huntsville, Alabama relations: - fn: 1 role: lead scientist/engineer and futurist (May 2023 to April 2024); Vice President and business unit lead for space, intelligence and missile defense (May 2024 onward) start: 2023-05 type: employed_by with: '[[Ignite Fueling Innovation, Inc.]]' - end: 2023-05 fn: 1 role: Glide Phase Interceptor kill vehicle lead (2022); Next Generation Interceptor advanced programs systems engineering manager (2022 to 2023) start: 2022-01 type: employed_by with: '[[Lockheed Martin]]' - end: 2022-01 fn: 1 role: Missile Defense National Team engineer and manager start: 2019-01 type: employed_by with: '[[Boeing]]' - fn: 1 role: adjunct instructor start: '2019' type: employed_by with: '[[University of Alabama in Huntsville]]' - fn: 2 role: Ignite lists him as associate director type: member_of with: '[[International Council on Systems Engineering]]' - fn: 4 role: affiliation given as Gent Technologies, LLC, Athens, Alabama in a March 16, 2023 paper; the company was a registered federal vendor November 21, 2017 to November 8, 2021 start: '2023-03-16' type: employed_by with: '[[Grumbach Enterprises, LLC]]' summary: Joshua Logan Grumbach is a Huntsville engineer and futurist, former Boeing and Lockheed Martin missile defense manager, and Ignite Fueling Innovation vice president for space, intelligence and missile defense since May 2024. tags: - Person - DefenseContractor - MissileDefense - StrategicForesight - HuntsvilleAlabama - IgniteFuelingInnovation updated: 2026-10-03 --- ### Education According to his curriculum vitae at the University of Alabama in Huntsville, Joshua "Logan" Grumbach holds a B.S. in mechanical engineering (August 2013), an M.S. in engineering in mechanical engineering (May 2015), an M.S. in aerospace systems engineering (May 2019) and a Ph.D. in aerospace systems engineering (May 2022), all from the University of Alabama in Huntsville. The CV lists an active Top Secret/SCI security clearance.[^1] ### Career before Ignite From August 2013 to February 2016 Grumbach was a mechanical engineer at Optical Sciences Corporation in Huntsville, designing hardware-in-the-loop test equipment for the Army Aviation and Missile Research, Development and Engineering Center and the Missile Defense Agency (facilities including the Redesigned Kill Vehicle and Advanced Sensors laboratories) and modeling the point of impact of destructive flight tests for the [United States Navy](/organizations/us-navy/). From February 2016 to January 2019 he was lead aerospace and propulsion engineer at Archarithms, Inc., and lead for divert and attitude control module design, integration and test on the Missile Defense Agency's Redesigned Kill Vehicle, including a 2.5-month hot-fire test at the White Sands Test Facility involving personnel of [NASA](/organizations/nasa/), the agency, Boeing, Raytheon and Aerojet Rocketdyne.[^1] At Boeing's Missile Defense National Team in Huntsville he held several positions between January 2019 and January 2022: senior aerospace and systems engineer working with Army Futures Command on ground test scenarios and intelligence reports for the Ballistic Missile Defense System; scenario design lead (September 2019 to July 2020), "analyzing signals, creating threat capability forecasts" for ground tests; system of systems integrator (July 2020 to January 2021); and responsible engineer for discrimination test content and, from November 2020, manager. At Lockheed Martin he was kill vehicle integrated product team lead for the Glide Phase Interceptor (January to November 2022) and systems engineering manager for advanced programs on the Next Generation Interceptor (November 2022 to May 2023), analyzing "threat data to forecast threat capabilities in 2045."[^1] ### Ignite Fueling Innovation From May 2023 Grumbach served [Ignite Fueling Innovation](/organizations/ignite-fueling-innovation/) as lead scientist/engineer and futurist. His CV describes the post as lead scientist/engineer on "a direct congressional tasking through the United States Space Force (USSF) and elements of the Intelligence Community (IC)," with the "Congressional tasking" continuing through May 2024. The CV states that he "pioneered a methodology for assessing novel technology potentials for adversarial technological and strategic surprise utilizing technology readiness assessments and futures methodologies (Framework Foresight and the Manoa Methdology)." It says he led "the development of a 500+ page futures study for the USSF focused on China as the adversary," covering technology assessments, strategic and policy initiatives for the United States and China, and workforce development recommendations, and that "the report is to be delivered to Congress in the June timeframe." It lists support for "the integration of a CONUS sensor gap analyses conducted by Federally Funded Research Centers (FFRDCs) and National Labs," and authorship of "a series of technical whitepapers baselining the current state and perceived benefits of new and emerging technologies including quantum radar, neutrino science, brain-computer interface, and metamaterials" for United States Space Force science and technology investment.[^1] The same entry states that he presented "new and novel technologies, sensors, and reports to senior government leadership at the Senior Executive Staff and Congressional Staff level" and "served as the lead technical representative in discussions with the Director of the Missile and Space Intelligence Center (MSIC) and the Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of. Defense for Mission Capabilities." The Missile and Space Intelligence Center is the organization the CV abbreviates "MSIC." The entry also lists him as "chief technical coordinator for a partnership with a multi-billion-dollar US company including assessing strategic advantages, capabilities, and business opportunities for the partnership"; the CV does not name the company.[^1] Since May 2024 he has been vice president and business unit lead for Ignite's space, intelligence and missile defense portfolio: 12 contracts with 10 customers (including the Missile Defense Agency, Space Force, NASA, the Army and intelligence agencies), about 90 personnel and approximately 50 percent of company revenue (about $15 million). The CV credits him with establishing Ignite Labs (four software products, in use from the Army Aviation and Missiles Center to the Space Force Concepts and Technologies Delta), a Fellows Program and Ignite's internal research and development program, and records a recovered Space Force program making up about 10 percent of company revenue, now developing the "Space Force Operating Environment." It lists a copyright for "Tool for High-Level Analysis of Literature and Exploratory Search (THALES) v8.0," January 31, 2025, held by Ignite.[^1] Ignite's leadership page says he leads its Space Force and intelligence portfolios, including support to the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency full-motion video mission and a partnership with Virgin Galactic on "Spaceflight as a Service."[^2] ### Grumbach Enterprises and Gent Technologies Grumbach Enterprises, LLC, doing business as Gent Technologies, was a registered federal vendor in the System for Award Management from November 21, 2017 until the registration expired on November 8, 2021, with a primary NAICS code for engineering services (541330) and additional codes including 541715 (research and development in the physical, engineering and life sciences) and 541380 (testing laboratories). The vendor profile gives its unique entity identifier as HK4QM8ZHFU57 and its CAGE code as 802U0.[^3] A search of USAspending by that identifier shows no prime awards. His 2023 paper in the journal Systems Engineering gives his affiliation as "Gent Technologies, LLC, Athens, Alabama."[^4] ### Publications According to his CV, he published four papers in Systems Engineering, three with L. Dale Thomas: "Integration Principles for Complex Systems" (September 28, 2020), "Systems Integration Implications of Component Reuse" (July 18, 2022) and "Quantitative Validation of Complex Systems Integration Principles" (September 20, 2022), and, as sole author, "Adapting a Strategic Foresight Framework to Reuse Integration" (March 16, 2023). It also lists "Read Before Flight" (August 2023).[^1] ### Teaching and affiliations His 2019 appointment as adjunct instructor in the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department of the University of Alabama in Huntsville covers introduction to engineering, systems thinking, strategic foresight and future studies, introduction to computational tools and, at graduate level, introduction to systems engineering. He holds the Project Management Professional and Professional in Business Analysis certifications. Ignite's page lists him as associate director of the International Council on Systems Engineering and a member of the Association of Professional Futurists.[^1][^2] [^1]: Joshua "Logan" Grumbach, curriculum vitae, University of Alabama in Huntsville, https://www.uah.edu/images/fsdir/cv/5172/logan-grumbach-cv-5172.pdf [^2]: Ignite Fueling Innovation, "Our Leadership," https://igniteimpossible.com/our-leadership/ [^3]: GovTribe, vendor profile "Grumbach Enterprises, LLC" (data from SAM.gov and the Small Business Administration, updated May 1, 2022), https://govtribe.com/vendors/grumbach-enterprises-llc-802u0 ; USAspending.gov, award search by unique entity identifier HK4QM8ZHFU57. [^4]: Crossref record, doi:10.1002/sys.21669, "Adapting a strategic foresight framework to reuse integration," Systems Engineering, March 16, 2023, https://api.crossref.org/works/10.1002/sys.21669