Lawn Love hires former SpaceX engineer

US-based lawn care startup Lawn Love has hired Paul McInerny as its new vice president of engineering.

McInerny was formerly the director of avionics flight software at SpaceX, where his team wrote the software for the first-ever private spacecraft to orbit the Earth and return safely.

He joins Lawn Love, a marketplace for on-demand lawn care services operating in more than 120 cities. Lawn Love matches homeowners with qualified lawn care professionals, with the entire service from quoting to payment managed on the platform.

READ MORE: How on-demand lawn care apps work

“As marketplaces become more centralized and corporate behemoths take over more industries, it's important that we maintain a healthy ecosystem of owner-operated businesses," McInerny said. "I love that Lawn Love is all about the little guy.”

“Paul has deep experience building software and leading engineering teams in high-stakes environments. He’s going to be a key player in solving the many complex challenges we face as we continue to build out the Lawn Love platform," said Jeremy Yamaguchi, Lawn Love founder and CEO.

Lawn Love was founded in 2014 and was launched through the Y-Combinator startup accelerator. The company has raised funding from investors like Joe Montana, Barbara Corcoran and others. There are currently thousands of independent contractors providing lawn care and snow removal services on the platform.

The company has more than 80 employees working across the U.S. and abroad. Services offered include lawn maintenance, aeration, weeding, gutter cleaning, leaf removal, and snow removal.