He started his association with Star Trek as employee of Greg Jein, Inc. between 1991 and 1994 when he worked as model maker on The Next Generation and Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country. In 1998 he created the Spacematic and Class F shuttlecraft model for the Deep Space Nine episode "Trials and Tribble-ations". Kaufman later worked for Digital Domain as miniature model maker on Star Trek Nemesis and in the prop shop of Star Trek.