Paul Snider received his bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from Kansas State University in 1992. He has served as professor of practice in the Carl R. Ice College of Engineering since August 2022, leading an interdisciplinary senior design capstone course pilot program for undergraduate engineering students.

Prior to his arrival at K-State, Snider spent 27 years at Ball Aerospace in Boulder, Colorado, serving as a systems engineer; test engineer; assembly, test and launch operations manager; and program manager with more than 20 years of space hardware integration, test and launch experience in the civilian, defense and commercial business sectors.

Snider launched an interdisciplinary senior design capstone course pilot program in the spring 2023 semester. Nearly 100 students from nine undergraduate engineering degree programs have completed or are conducting interdisciplinary coursework as of the spring 2025 semester. In 2025, Snider initiated a novel multi-semester CubeSat interdisciplinary project for undergraduate students to conceive a mission, design, build and test the satellite with the goals of being launched into space, and operating in-orbit by the end of the decade.