From left, Donna Williams, HR specialist; Polly Sweet, chief/personnel; and Joyce Willingham, HR specialist hire all types of engineers to work for the Materiel Command.

Civilians do plenty of interesting work for the Air Force Materiel Command, says Polly Sweet, chief of personnel management and workforce shaping.

“People hear ‘Air Force,’ and unless they are near a base and know civilians at the base, they think you need to be in the military to work for the Department of Defense. But that is not the case,” Sweet says.

Sweet notes that about 70 percent of the command’s employees are civilian. Because of the command’s research and development mission, it needs engineers of all types – especially electronics and electrical engineers.

“We hire scientists in our laboratories and elsewhere, chemists, physicists, operations research analysts, IT types. We also hire management analysts for basic analysis work, and supply specialists, logistics, program managers,” Sweet says. Some program managers, she adds, have engineering backgrounds.

Air Force Material Command www.afmc.wpafb.af.mil Headquarters: Wright-Patterson Air Force Base (Dayton, OH) and nine other locations Employees: 90,000 employees Mission: R&D, acquisition and sustaining of weapons systems

The Air Force Materiel Command, which includes locations at ten Air Force bases, is responsible for weapons systems R&D, and acquiring and maintaining systems used by the Air Force. The command has centers at the Air Force Flight Test Center (Edwards AFB, CA); Kirtland AFB, NM; Brooks City-Base, TX; Oklahoma City Air Logistics Center, OK; Ogden AFB, UT; Warner-Robins Air Logistics Center, GA; Wright-Patterson AFB (Dayton, OH); Hanscom AFB (Boston, MA); Arnold Air Force Base, TN; and Eglin AFB, FL. The command also includes the Air Force Research Laboratory, which has sites in several locations, Sweet says.

Research areas at the centers include reengineering aging aircraft at the Oklahoma City Air Logistics Center, working on the joint strike fighter and other aerospace products at Wright-Patterson and doing stress tests at Edwards.

The command needs new civilian technical hires. A large group of employees are likely to retire within the next five years, Sweet says. Currently, the average age across the command is about forty-seven.

“That’s why, over the last several years, we focused on recruitment and retention initiatives,” she says. “It’s a good opportunity to reshape our workforce, to increase our diversity.”

She notes that the command is reaching out to African American and Hispanic scientists and engineers, with Air Force-wide support. One example: this year, the Air Force centrally funded its co-op programs, which target students for hard-to-fill jobs, mostly in science and engineering. That allowed the command to commit to more interns than it would have been able to afford on its own.

“Within our command, we’ve also funded recruitment bonuses to make us more competitive. And we’ve reenergized our college recruiting program at the local level and at HQ,” Sweet says.

The Air Force has several specialized programs to recruit students, including many in science and engineering. The Student Temporary Employment Program (STEP) targets high school and college students, but the work they do is not necessarily tied to their current studies, says Donna Williams, human resource specialist. The Student Career Experience Program (SCEP) focuses on college juniors and seniors or graduate students. When they finish their studies, they may get a noncompetitive conversion to permanent employment. “Historically, 99 percent of the students who come through SCEP are offered permanent employment,” Williams says.

The Air Force SCEP program offers benefits like recruiting bonuses, repayment of student loans, training and masters degrees to some of the participants in critical skill areas – including engineering.

Six of the command’s centers do their own hiring, rather than go through the Office of Personnel Management. The centers focus on nearby colleges and universities, including HBCUs and other minority-serving institutions. College professors visit the labs for summer work, and lab personnel may become visiting professors for a semester or two.

Last year, the command started attending national conferences for groups like NSBE and the Black Engineer of the Year Award Conference. This year, recruiters also plan to attend the SHPE national conference and the Hispanic Engineer National Achievements Award conference.

Sweet says the command is working hard to hire more people of diverse backgrounds in its technical areas. “I would say that where we need the biggest help is finding Hispanic Americans. That’s the greatest underrepresentation, but African Americans are underrepresented as well.”

The command offers support for diverse employees with special emphasis programs for various ethnic groups at each center.

“Program managers are responsible for educational info, having programs that highlight achievements of people in that group,” Sweet says. She notes that General Lester L. Lyles, commander of Materiel Command for the last three years, is African American and has been a leader in the effort.

Civilian employees enjoy various work/life benefits, including flextime. “People can set their schedules as long as they work eight hours,” Sweet says. “Some centers have alternate work schedules. People work longer on certain days and then take off one day during the week. Some people use telework – working from home. And we have part-time employment options that are very helpful, especially to women.”

Volunteer opportunities are also available. At Wright-Patterson a staff member matches volunteers with opportunities in the community. “Folks here often judge science fairs, make presentations, they tutor – the whole gamut,” Sweet says.

“We want to show, even at the middle school level, that the Air Force has many opportunities. We know that we have to make sure interested students get on the science and engineering track early to get them to where they can consider a career in science or engineering.”

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