Changing technologies
OPPORTUNITIES IN HOMELAND SECURITY

Homeland security contractors fight threats on many fronts

With credentials in CS, systems, security and more, these techies fill niches from surveillance through communications to physical security

Much of the work is designed to foil terrorist activities, but dangers from natural forces are also a concern

By Claire Swedberg
Contributing Editor

Photo courtesy of Maurice G. Fitzgerald and Patriot Technology, Seat Pleasant, MD

Raytheon's Paul Washington passes along some of his security technology know-how.

Ashley McGuirk of ITT-AES: project manager for a counterproliferation toolkit.

Thousands of engineers and IT professionals are focusing on homeland security in the United States today. Many of them are filling positions that didn't exist a decade ago. The demand for smart technical people in homeland security is expected to continue into the foreseeable future.

Whether they are protecting the U.S. against terrorist attacks or planning to ameliorate natural disasters, federal, state and local government and their contractors are seeking technical solutions to problems, some of which were previously unaddressed.

"Meeting the challenges of manmade and natural disasters will require the work of many, many engineers," says Tim Collins, managing director of the Homeland Security Institute at Purdue University (West Lafayette, IN). Collins is a former state police officer and U.S. Air Force aviator.

"Every engineering discipline is needed for homeland security," Collins says, from civil to computer, mechanical to biological. And in the series of "grand challenges" postulated by the federal government for homeland security improvements, engineering skill is a required part of nearly every project.

A few of the challenges
Some of the proposed challenges are border security upgrades which may add video, audio and sensor technologies to the border patrol toolkit, then go on to integrate all the data they provide. "They will need a ton of engineering skills to accomplish that!" Collins remarks.

Tracking indoors is another likely focus of technological growth. While outdoor tracking is firmly established using satellite and GPS systems, indoor tracking has become an area of focus for the government, Collins explains.

In addition, agricultural and biological engineers are working on food safety, and civil engineers are needed to help design and construct buildings that can withstand attacks from both terrorists and nature. "Homeland security is a wide-open market," Collins declares. "These threats are not going to go away."

Paul Washington manages homeland security research for Raytheon
Paul Washington is program manager of homeland security internal R&D at the Landover, MD facility of the information solutions group of defense and aerospace systems supplier Raytheon Co (Waltham, MA).

He heads a team of ten engineers who investigate relevant technology and build demonstrable prototypes for the homeland security and law enforcement community. They work in areas like biometrics technologies integration, identity management, data architectures and management and IS security.

In all, Washington is responsible for the planning, analysis, lifecycle management and integration of as many as a hundred automated information systems in the intelligence community.

He earned his 1987 BSCS at the U.S. Military Academy (West Point, NY) and a 1992 MS in systems management at Golden Gate University (San Francisco, CA). Now he's working on his dissertation for a PhD in CS at George Washington University (Washington, DC).

When he completed his BS, Washington joined the Army as second lieutenant in military intelligence, and has served as a company commander, systems integration officer and intelligence officer at the division, brigade and battalion level, division intelligence collection manager and surveillance systems platoon leader.

In 1996 he transferred to the Army reserves and went to work as a senior member of tech staff at Litton/TASC, Inc (Annapolis Junction, MD). His job was identifying and developing information and IS security standards for joint signals intelligence airborne platforms and programs. This, Washington explains, involved extensive research and examination of current security technology.

At the same time, Washington served as chief of automation branch and ops officer and later company commander in the reserves.

In 1998 he became principal member of tech staff at Litton/ TASC, developing IS security architecture for the National Security Agency.

In 2000 he moved to nCipher, Inc (Woburn, MA) as senior computer and communications security consultant. It was a change of pace for him to be working on solutions to business and technical problems rather than security matters.

"It seemed like a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity," he says. "It only lasted a year, but I learned a lot from it."

Then Washington went on to direct information security engineering at the Boston, MA office of Applied Research Associates. He oversaw the company's computer and communications security engineering ops, including marketing, business development and program management. He also conducted security analyses of several large airports in support of proposal development.

In 2003 Washington arrived at Raytheon's Arlington, VA office as chief info assurance architect and manager of the company's secure networks support section. He was tech lead for the Transportation Security Admin/Unisys program, and lead engineer overseeing the functions of fifteen engineers.

In January, 2005 he became Raytheon's info assurance program manager and senior principal systems engineer. Now he was the lead technical support for all the section's business development activities, and program manager for its $10 million Department of Defense program.

But in May 2005 Washington's life took another major change. He was recalled to duty with the U.S. Army and sent to Iraq.

In Baghdad his expertise was put to good use. He served as info and communications technology advisor to the Iraqi Ministry of Interior, the Civilian Police Assistance Training Team, and the Multinational Security Transition Command-Iraq. A major project was helping the Ministry of Interior develop a modern IS and communications network.

Then he was sent on to Jordan as liaison officer with the Multinational Security Transition Command-Iraq.

In September 2006 he completed those duties and returned to the U.S. and Raytheon. "Raytheon took care of me while I was gone," he says.

He was put into the post of program manager for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Visit program. Visit focuses on identification and information assurance. By using biometric information, Washington explains, the system provides "a 360 degree view of who a person is.

"I've moved around a lot since I entered the workforce," Washington reflects. "I like to think I've built bridges, not burned them.

"I make it a point to leverage old relationships," he adds. His restful activity outside of work? Scuba diving.

At ITT-AES, Ashley McGuirk works to counter WMDs

Ashley McGuirk.

In 2000 Ashley McGuirk joined the Colorado Springs, CO facility of ITT Industries-Advanced Engineering and Sciences (ITT-AES, Herndon, VA). She started as a researcher on ballistic missile defense and a variety of other programs. That same year she became a PE in the state of Alabama.

In 2002 she became technical manager of development for operational support of sciences and technical assessments for countering chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear and explosive weapons of mass destruction (WMDs).

She's currently the project manager for a counterproliferation, counterforce software toolkit used by warfighters to analyze targeting alternatives, weapon effectiveness and the collateral effects of air attacks on chemical and biological targets.

She's also responsible for training researchers, warfighters, defense contractors and intelligence agencies in targeting methodologies and analysis associated with the software.

McGuirk began her career with a 1992 BSME and 1997 MSME from Auburn University (Auburn, AL). In college she interned in optical engineering at the physics division of Eglin Air Force Base (Fort Walton Beach, FL).

On graduation she found an ME job at Metric Systems Corp (Fort Walton Beach, FL). She did structural/stress analysis and design engineering for projects from cargo systems for aircraft to amusement park rides.

In 1995 McGuirk joined Riverwood International (Marietta, GA), a paperboard and packaging machinery company, as an ME, designing custom machinery for beverage packaging.

She soon moved to an aerospace research firm, Sverdrup Technology (Huntsville, AL), as a propulsion engineer. She worked as a lead design and stress analysis engineer for the propulsion system of the X34 demonstrator vehicle, a joint project of Sverdrup, NASA and Orbital Sciences Corp.

In 1998 she went to Tybrin Corp (Fort Walton Beach, FL), a contractor firm, first as an ME and then as senior software engineer. She developed an aircraft-stores compatibility program and aircraft mission portable flight planning software (PFPS). PFPS is multiplatform software for navigation and fuel planning, using geographical coordinates and digital terrain and flight characteristic databases. "It maps out wind speed, fuel status and other critical information during the flight," she says.

McGuirk notes that in her work, the ability to cross between Java and Fortran programming languages is crucial. In her frequent presentations to techies ranging from physicists to fighter pilots, she notes that she needs to "have the flexibility to speak the languages they understand."

Dewberry PM Jennifer Holcomb specializes in antiterrorism

Jennifer Holcomb.

In 2002 CE Jennifer Holcomb joined Dewberry engineering consultants (Fairfax, VA). "I had been doing environmental work and enjoying it," she says. "But I was looking for a company where I could learn new things."

Her Dewberry job was posted as environmental engineering, but her first project involved assessing the vulnerability of buildings to terrorist threats as well as natural hazards. Then she began conducting multi-hazard vulnerability assessments for a variety of government agencies and commercial interests, looking at chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear threats. At one point she was sent to an agency in the Southwest to assess more than a hundred buildings.

When she got back from that assignment she was given a force-protection design job, developing vehicle access control points for the military. She's still doing that kind of work.

She begins by assessing the client's vulnerability. If they go with Dewberry's recommendations for safety mods, Holcomb stays on the project through to completion. So she's sometimes working as a terrorism expert and sometimes as a project manager.

Security work can be challenging, Holcomb says. "You have to learn to think like the bad guy." She has earned her physical security professional certification and is a building security certified professional.

Holcomb received her 1998 BSCE from the University of Dayton (Dayton, OH) and began as a staff engineer at Secor International (Lansing, MI). She was responsible for environmental site assessments and took samples for remediation monitoring.

A year later she joined IT Group, Inc (Centreville, VA) as an engineer II doing environmental site assessments. One interesting project involved asbestos abatement in a sector of the Pentagon.

She also served as health and safety officer for a project at a pumping station near Fort Lauderdale, FL. "The hazards of that job included alligators," she says with a smile.

It's all good experience. "An engineer should be open to trying new things," Holcomb says. "I got into the security field because I was intrigued by it."

At Nortel GS, Tjuana Huddleston focuses on border protection

Tjuana Huddleston.

Tjuana Huddleston is an IT professional for Nortel Government Solutions (Fairfax, VA), working at Computer Sciences Corp (CSC) as liaison on a contract between CSC and the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Agency. She oversees multiple projects.

Huddleston completed a BSCS at Clark Atlanta University in 1992. After several temporary jobs she joined the St. Louis, MO office of the Edward Jones financial firm as a computer operator. In 1995 she was promoted to programmer and began working in Cobol, developing programs to be used in-house. In 1999 she moved to the St. Louis office of financial firm A.G. Edwards in the same sort of work.

In 2002 she started at Nortel Government Systems as a senior technical programmer doing government contract work. "I had never been in the contracting field with its short-term assignments," she says. "I liked the idea of frequent change."

Understanding the government agencies you work for is important, she reflects, as well as understanding the assignments and how critical they may be. "Be flexible and have an open mind. Things change and you have to be able to adapt."

Tochi Iheagwara works on "credentialing" at Lockheed Martin

Tochi L. Iheagwara.

At Lockheed Martin (Rockville, MD), systems engineer Tochi L. Iheagwara is involved in "credentialing" solutions. She's working with a homeland security presidential directive (HSPD 12) program, examining many possible ways of identifying government personnel for security purposes. "I've been doing a lot with integration, testing components and commercial off-the-shelf products," she says.

She joined Lockheed Martin in 2005 when she'd completed her BS in electrical and computer engineering from Drexel University (Philadelphia, PA) and her MS in the same area from Johns Hopkins University (Baltimore, MD).

"I knew homeland security was important business," she says. She had already tried the field with two internships at IBM working on chip failure analysis, and another at BAE Systems (Gaithersburg, MD) doing design and testing for secure communication systems for the military.

She started at Lockheed Martin as an engineering associate, working on short assignments while she waited for her high-level security certification to come through. Then she joined a surveillance security system project for the Metropolitan Transit Authority (New York, NY).

Iheagwara has been given a Lockheed Martin honors award, and the company has put her in a program designed to build "full spectrum" leaders. "It's a formalized program where senior engineers filter down their knowledge," she says. She's hoping it will lead her into program management.

Paulette Smith is an IT specialist at Northrop Grumman

Paulette Smith.

Paulette Smith, based in Arnaudville, LA, is national service delivery manager in the technology enterprise automation management support (TEAMS) group of Northrop Grumman Information Technology (McLean, VA). TEAMS supports the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) bureau and Citizenship and Immigration Services (CIS) of the DHS.

Smith earned a 1986 BA in business with an interest in banking and finance at the University of Southwestern Louisiana (now University of Louisiana at Lafayette). She began in banking as a mortgage underwriter for residential loans.

In 1992 she went to work at Informax Data Systems, her brother's company, which provided engineering and IT services for immigration. "I always had a desire to work in computers and my brother took me under his wing," she says. She became a team lead there, then moved to operations manager at Getronics Government Solutions (Washington, DC), an IT company.

In 2002 she became IT western regional manager for Northrop Grumman in Los Angeles. That role expanded to national service delivery manager, responsible for services provided to ICE and CIS.

Today Smith and her staff of fifteen technical pros provide management oversight for a TEAMS staff of 500 stationed across the continental U.S. and in Hawaii, Guam, the U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico. She manages LAN administrative field and office support personnel in areas like IT security compliance, data communications, hardware and software support, relocation of IT infrastructure and much more.

Smith received a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement team award this year, and was recognized as a technology all-star by the Women of Color in Government and Defense affinity group in 2002.

"Homeland security is very important to all of us," Smith says. "The work I do is definitely different and very rewarding." She adds that the engineers she likes to work with are "the ones who want to learn."

Diversity in homeland security
Diversity in homeland security hiring is an important part of many companies' programs.

Christina Correira.

"Diversity is critical to the success of Nortel Government Solutions," declares Christina Correira, HR VP. "Diversity is also increasingly important to our primary customer, the federal government. We have many areas of growth."

Most employees hold U.S. government security clearances or special access privileges. And most employees are co-located at customer facilities.

Leslie Keelty.

Dewberry seeks diversity in its nearly 2,000 employees to complement its diverse client base. It provides a varied group of services, says Leslie Keelty, corporate director of training and development. Awareness training for all and leadership development programs for diverse employees are among the company's offerings.

Raytheon "values diversity and building an inclusive environment. We give techies the opportunity to grow their careers in many different ways, yet stay within the same corporation," says Jeff Goodman, university programs manager for Raytheon.

Raytheon, he explains, predominantly hires engineers. Most are EEs, computer engineers or CS grads, but the company also brings in some MEs, IEs, MfgEs, ChEs, aeronautical folks and more.

"We are running a business for mostly government customers, so we need people who can manage projects to meet cost and schedule goals," Goodman declares.

D/C

Claire Swedberg is a freelance writer who lives in La Conner, WA.

Back to Top