Changing technologies
OPPORTUNITIES IN DEFENSE AND HOMELAND SECURITY

Homeland security & defense are great diversity employers

With the baby boomers thinking about retirement, the job picture is looking good for engineers and IT pros

In addition to basic technical skills, it's helpful to have some experience in project management

Laurel McKee Ranger
Contributing Editor

As an IE in the chief technology office of the Transportation Security Agency, Roberto Rosado is responsible for western region airports from Hawai'i, Alaska and LAX to Montana.

Lt Commander Timika Lindsay is with the Joint Chiefs of Staff C-4 directorate.

'Like most federal agencies, the agencies involved in homeland security and defense have a fairly high need for engineers and IT professionals, particularly those with strong skills and experience." That's the assessment of John Palguta, VP of policy at the Partnership for Public Service (Washington, DC). This nonprofit agency works to make government an employer of choice for talented Americans.

The federal government as a whole hired more than 4,000 engineers and more than 3,000 IT pros in fiscal year 2006. Those numbers were predicted in "Where the jobs are: the continuing growth of federal job opportunities," a February 2005 report by the Partnership for Public Service, the National Academy of Public Administration and the New York Times "Job Market" section (www.ourpublicservice.org/ usr_doc/FINAL_REPORT.pdf).

In the next few years retirements are expected to peak, Palguta notes. "Increasing numbers of experienced folks will be retiring and there will be a need to replace them," he says, although government budget concerns may reduce replacement numbers to some extent.

A great diversity employer
Palguta points out that the federal government is a prime employer of women and minorities. "It has surpassed the private sector in this respect by many measures," he says. Government hires of most underrepresented groups are at or above the private rate, with Hispanics the sole exception.

In the Department of Defense, for example, 35 percent of the civilian workforce is female, 14 percent African American, 6 percent Asian Pacific and 6 percent Hispanic. Levels for these groups in the Department of Homeland Security run 31 percent female, 14 percent African American, six percent Asian American and 18 percent Hispanic.

Project management stands out
In addition to basic technical skill sets, it's valuable for engineers and IT folks to have some experience in project management, Palguta says.

Much of the work done by defense-related agencies is supported by contractors, and "the ability to work with and manage contractors makes people with this experience very attractive." Experience working in an international or multicultural environment is also a plus, he notes.

Dr Christophe McCray is a Fellow at the ONR

Dr Christophe McCray.

Christophe McCray, PhD is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) at the Office of Naval Research (ONR, Arlington, VA). The ONR sponsors research to benefit the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps.

The AAAS fellowship program is designed to give PhD scientists and engineers experience working with the U.S. government. During his year-long fellowship, McCray will work on nanoscience technology that may someday help the military tag enemy combatants. By the end of his fellowship he hopes to have found several projects that will be worth funding.

He is also involved in strategic planning for naval science and technology. "We're considering what areas of science and technology we should invest in, and trying to identify focus areas that might lead to new capabilities," McCray says.

McCray's 2001 PhD in laser physics is from Hampton University (Hampton, VA). Originally from Denver, CO, he has a 1993 BS in physics from North Carolina A&T University and a 1997 MS in physics from Hampton University.

From 2001 to 2004 he worked as a program manager for defense contractor DRS Technologies (Melbourne, FL), helping to develop laser range-finding systems to guide pilots onto the deck of an aircraft carrier. From 2004 to 2005 he was with ITT AES (Albuquerque, NM), working on a frequency agile laser system that looks for chemical and biologic weapons agents. In grad school he worked as an intern with NASA and Lawrence Livermore National Labs.

What got him so interested in science? McCray reflects that he has always been interested in the unknown and loved science fiction. When he was in the eighth grade his father helped him build a laser alarm system. "It grabbed me and held me, this little bright beam and what could be done with it."

Being an African American PhD in this area is a very positive thing, McCray thinks. "Nanoscience will revolutionize the world and touch every aspect of our lives.

"I don't run away from challenges," McCray says. "I'm not intimidated by much."

Defense Logistics Agency: a model EEO workforce

Famia Magana.

"We make a great effort to diversify the workforce at the Defense Logistics Agency (DLA, Fort Belvoir, VA)," says Famia Magana, director of EEO. "We've built everything around our effort to establish a model workforce."

The DLA, with about 21,000 employees, provides logistics and contract management support to the U.S. armed forces. "In areas where we need to improve our diversity profile we've established a corporate recruitment program," Maga–a says. One such program is for corporate interns, but "We also look for experienced candidates and have had some success recruiting mid-grade employees from government and private industry."

The agency has also had success in recruiting from the Wounded Warrior program for service-disabled Iraq vets. "We have a goal of 3 percent for targeted disabilities, and right now we stand at about 2 percent," Maga–a reports.

Among engineers currently at the DLA, only about 10 percent are female, but women represent nearly 40 percent of IT workers. Many types of techies are hired, from architects and CEs to EEs and fire prevention, environmental, biomedical and aerospace engineers. IT folks range from those with networking skills to systems analysts, systems admins, data managers, security and apps software pros.

Erika Baker: IE with the DLA

Erika Baker.

Erika Baker is an IE in the sourcing and qualifications department of the DLA. She ensures that manufacturers meet specified criteria and comply with specs for printed wiring boards purchased for the armed forces, and acts as a program manager for manufacturers.

Much of Baker's day is spent interpreting specs for manufacturers and test labs, reviewing test results to be sure requirements have been met, and auditing facilities to assess manufacturers' compliance. Her expertise in program and project management lets her guide manufacturers through the compliance process while ensuring appropriate qualification.

Baker received a BSIE from Morgan State University (Baltimore, MD) in 1999 and an MBA with a concentration in financial management from Ashland University (Ashland, OH) in 2003. She interned with East Ohio Gas (Cleveland, OH) in billing, automating customer info and developing a template for inputting data.

Another internship was with Honda of America Manufacturing, where she created a spare-parts database. She also did a co-op with Lucent Technologies, where she helped reduce transportation costs for raw material.

In 2004 Baker began an internship with the DLA, training as a quality technician. She moved to her current position later the same year.

Baker always liked technical subjects. In high school she participated in an engineering and science summer program at Case Western Reserve University (Cleveland, OH).

After 9/11 she became more aware of defense and homeland security. "The impact really hit home when my father, a colonel in the Army, was deployed to Iraq in 2002. I responded by looking for a job in defense," she says.

Having experienced both the public and private sectors, Baker is aware of the differences. "The government is more family friendly," she believes. "We have core hours from nine to three, but other times are more flexible. You are required to support the mission, of course, but it typically doesn't go beyond forty hours a week."

Milagros Gonzalez Young: product assurance at Picatinny Arsenal

Milagros Gonzalez Young.

The U.S. Army Armament Research Development and Engineering Center (ARDEC, Picatinny Arsenal, NJ) hires many different types of engineers, says HR specialist Valerie Anticoli. "We look for computer engineers, ChEs, IEs and MEs."

Milagros Gonzalez Young is a lead product assurance engineer at ARDEC. The center manages and executes the life cycle of engineering processes required for R&D, production, field support and militarization of ammunition, weapons, fire control and more for the U.S. Army.

Gonzalez Young is the lead materiel release program manager. The program, she explains, "is intended to ensure safety, suitability and supportability of materiel issued to soldiers." It used to be a one-person operation, "but we needed more resources for the global war on terrorism. Currently there are three on my team and it's still a challenge to keep up," she says.

Besides managing that program, Gonzalez Young works with ARDEC's materiel release advisory board and the Department of the Army.

She began at Picatinny in 1989, as soon as she got her BSIE from the University of Puerto Rico-MayagŸez. "ARDEC is very proactive about having a diverse workforce, and they recruited me at MayagŸez," she explains. Her 1993 MS in science systems management is from the Picatinny campus of Florida Technical Institute, one of several schools that offer courses at Picatinny. Internal training is available as well, she notes. "We do a lot here that they don't teach at the university."

When Gonzalez Young first arrived there were very few women engineers at the center. "It's still mostly a male environment, but there are a lot more women now."

Picatinny is a great place to work, she says, and as a new mother she appreciates the onsite childcare center and flexible work schedule. "I can easily see my child, and with flex hours I can take a day off every other week. But I still need my Puerto Rico fix," she adds. "Several times a year I go there to visit my family."

Although she's been recruited for other jobs, "I'm still here at ARDEC," Gonzalez Young concludes. "The work is very interesting and it's satisfying to know that we can attest to the quality, safety and suitability of what ends up in our soldiers' hands. We're very proud of that."

Irma Fuentes manages CADD for the U.S. Coast Guard

Irma Fuentes.

Irma Fuentes is a CADD manager and architect with the U.S. Coast Guard (Washington, DC). She's a civilian employee, assigned to the Guard's civil engineering unit (CEU) in Miami, FL. Her office manages maintenance, repairs and improvements to buildings and structures from South Carolina to Texas, the Caribbean and parts of the Mississippi valley.

Fuentes has a 1982 associates degree in applied science from Essex County College (Newark, NJ) and a 1988 bachelors of architecture from the New Jersey Institute of Technology (Newark, NJ). She was originally hired to create a CADD department and manage projects.

"When I started there was only one big old workstation and they were doing the drafting by hand. We built the department basically from nothing. Now every engineer has an engineering workstation and is proficient in AutoCAD. We have an archive of more than 25,000 drawings, some from the 1800s, including lighthouses that we must care for. I train all the new hires in AutoCAD drafting standards, and I also do design work as a project manager."

The 2005 hurricane season kept Fuentes and the rest of CEU Miami very busy. Damage from Katrina, Rita, Wilma and other storms had to be repaired quickly. Fuentes was part of several different disaster assistance teams. "Each time the team would go out in the field to assess the damage and help during reconstruction," she explains.

Fuentes supervised a team of eight CADD specialists during the hurricane restoration effort, including four interns. "I was so pleased with everybody on the team," she says. "It wasn't easy."

Fuentes often works a twelve or thirteen hour day, getting home at eight or nine at night. "I do a lot of my CADD work after everyone leaves for the day. After the engineers finish a project I do a quality control check before the work goes into the contracting and bid process."

Fuentes started with the Coast Guard in 1992. Before that she worked for Carr Smith Associates (Miami, FL) as a CADD architect, and for the City of New York's department of housing preservation and development as an assistant architect and CADD programmer.

She left her native El Salvador in 1976, during the civil war there. "I was a teacher and they were killing teachers. It was a very frightening time.

"When I got to the U.S. I didn't speak English. I worked full time at night at a Levelor blind factory in Hoboken, graduated from Essex County College with honors and got a scholarship to NJIT. I went to NJIT full time and still worked full time at Levelor. For six years I slept about two hours a night," she recalls.

"But Levolor helped me and after I graduated from NJIT they sent me back to school to learn AutoCAD. A lot of people have helped me along the way."

One of the things Fuentes likes best about her job is working with college interns. "I feel good helping them in their careers; I feel I can make a difference."

Info and applied technology at the TSA
At the Transportation Security Agency (TSA, Washington, DC), technology is an integral part of the mission.The TSA's Information Technology Division (ITD) is responsible for all the agency's IT needs: computers, telephones, wireless devices, network connectivity, software applications, IT security, and information sharing. "ITD is key in the drive for efficiency at TSA," says Joe Peters, deputy CIO.

The TSA Office of Security Technology (OST) works with security and screening technology, developing new technologies and integrating them into the transportation industry to protect passengers and the transportation infrastructure.

TSA employs a broad range of engineers and IT professionals. ITD looks for network engineers, apps developers, systems analysts, IT program managers andsecurity specialists. OST needs EEs, IEs, computer engineers, engineering technicians, program managers and security specialists.

Roberto Rosado: IE with the TSA

Roberto Rosado.

As an IE in the TSA's chief technology office, Roberto Rosado is responsible for western region airports: Los Angeles Airport (LAX) and others from Hawai'i and Alaska to Montana. Rosado is the contracting officer and tech rep for the agency at those airports.

"We basically make sure the airport is adhering to the U.S. government letter of intent. I ensure that all the details of the letter are followed by the airports and their subcontractors."

Rosado is from Puerto Rico, where he started at the University at MayagŸez. But when he was nineteen he transferred to the engineering program at Kansas State University. He quit school altogether for a while and became a deputy sheriff in Kansas, then transferred to Florida International University, where he finally completed his BS in electronics engineering in 1985.

His first post-graduation job was with General Dynamics (Falls Church, VA) in a Detroit facility, working as a reliability engineer on the Army's M1A1 tank. He was with General Dynamics for eight years, and spent two of them in Germany where he learned to speak fluent German, making him trilingual.

His next career move was to reliability and safety engineering in the St. Petersburg, FL facility of Olin Corp (Norwalk, CT), a leading producer of copper alloy, ammunition and chlorine.

After six years he segued into telecom and IT. First he was a project manager with ClearNet (Ottawa, Ontario, Canada), working in the company's Calgary, Alberta office, and later with AT&T Wireless (San Antonio, TX). Rosado started with the TSA soon after it was formed in 2002. He went in as an IT engineer, but about a year ago he transferred to IE. The largest project he's been involved with so far is the $600 million automated baggage system at LAX.

"I really enjoy this position and the involvement with various airports," he says. "Trying to come up with solutions is an exciting challenge."

The TSA's responsibility for security at the nation's airports fits well with Rosado's interest in law enforcement. With up to 2 million passengers screened every day, the TSA is looking for the latest security technology. "We're always thinking and anticipating, trying to make things safer, faster and more comfortable.

But we also have to think the way a terrorist might, make constant adjustments and always be upgrading."

The CIA: largest increase
The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA, McLean, VA) hires a wide range of technical officers, including program managers, technical ops officers, network and systems specialists, scientists and engineers of all types and levels.

"In 2004 the president gave the CIA a mandate to increase our workforce by 50 percent, the largest increase since the agency was conceived in 1947," says a CIA spokesperson. Last year about 20 percent of all new hires were in technical positions.

A great mystique surrounds the CIA, which describes itself as "the eyes and ears of the nation and at times its hidden hands." But it's not all spies. Hardworking engineers and IT specialists provide the support structure for the nation's top intelligence agency.

Lois B of the CIA
Lois B, whose full name and photo are omitted for security reasons, is African American. As chief of communications at the agency she manages a team of ten engineers, and liaises with the intelligence community, including the NSA, DIA, DEA, State Department, FBI, and the director of national intelligence.

"All these agencies need communications. We install and operate equipment for worldwide communications, from lease lines to microwave and satellite communications," Lois explains.

She takes charge when issues and problems come up in local offices or in the field abroad, and if necessary she may deliver or install systems and otherwise solve issues. The job involves a fair amount of overseas travel, and she thinks that's fun.

"When I travel overseas I am under cover. If you blend in it's not difficult, but if someone on a plane begins to ask questions I usually pretend to be asleep. I prefer to travel with a colleague when possible."

Because her responsibilities include overseas equipment, Lois usually arrives at work about 5:30 in the morning. "That's when people abroad begin calling in with field issues and equipment problems. I send the guys out to deal with it. It's fun stuff."

Lois began working for the CIA in 1988, and got most of her training at the agency. She received her electronics technology certification in the early 1990s. "There are things we do here that require special training. We do that training at the CIA University."

Managing men can be a challenge, she notes, "but it's always worked out." She finds her current job highly rewarding. "I'm excited that as a single mom working in a man's world I can be a leader."

CIA folks, she notes, "are a talented group of people. The general public is unaware of what these officers do each day or what sacrifices they are making. I am proud to be a member of this patriotic, conscientious group."

Jacqueline Smith: requirements and research at the DIA

Jacqueline Smith.

The Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA, Washington, DC) is a combat support agency with more than 7,500 employees worldwide, and part of the U.S. intelligence community. DIA provides foreign military intelligence to warfighters, defense policymakers and military force planners. Jacqueline Smith is an IT specialist with the agency, part of the requirements and research team.

"We lead research and evaluation of next-generation technology and provide solutions and information management technology to the agency, combat and commands, joint intelligence centers and service intelligence centers," Smith explains. She collects, assesses, defines and tracks user requirements.

Over the course of her career, she has done network and systems engineering, LAN admin, and tested hardware and software for security vulnerabilities.

Although Smith was always interested in computers, there weren't many in her high school on the Eastern Shore of Virginia back in the early 1980s. After graduating from high school she began her working career with the CIA as a janitor in 1989.

But, "I wanted to be in the computer world, so once I got my clearance I applied for a higher-level job at the CIA. My first job was in the record room." She's working on her business analyst certification and has developed skills on the job and through training courses. "I was always ambitious. I always wanted something better," she says.

She eventually won through to computer technician, resolving apps and computer problems. In 2000 she began working for the DIA as a contractor with the Knowledge Consulting Group (Sterling, VA), an IT consulting firm.

Smith is still looking for "something better." She finds graphics and geospatial technology exciting and plans to work toward a college degree. Her twenty-one-year old daughter and sixteen-year-old son are also interested in technical careers.

Lt Commander Timika Lindsay of the Joint Chiefs of Staff

Timika Lindsay.

Engineers and IT pros at the Joint Chiefs of Staff are members of the military who are assigned to their positions. Lt Commander Timika Lindsay is an action officer on joint staff in the Joint Chiefs of Staff command control, communications and computer systems (C-4) directorate (Pentagon, Arlington, VA).

As Lindsay explains it, the joint staff supports missions and integrates services and combatant commands. Lindsay herself is a subject matter expert on a number of programs.

"The joint staff has thousands of action officers," she says. "I'm in the space and transport branch, with responsibility for military and commercial satellite communication. In my branch there's a team of eight who work on space and transport."

Lindsay has a 1992 BS in general science from the U.S. Naval Academy (Annapolis, MD), a 1999 MS in IT management from the Naval Postgraduate School (Monterrey, CA) and a 2006 MS in military science from the Marine Corps University (Quantico, VA). One of her current assignments is a satellite communication project which is not expected to be completed until 2010. It's one of the six or so projects each action officer is usually working on. "Unfortunately, you have to work on them all at the same time," she notes with a smile.

Before attending the academy Lindsay was enrolled in the Naval Academy Prep School (Newport, RI), a feeder school for Annapolis. After graduating from Annapolis Lindsay was a traffic division and assistant communications officer at a naval computer and telecom station in Japan for two years.

In 1994 she worked with the Navy recruiting district in Houston, TX. After receiving her MSIT in 1999 she became a senior and minority admissions counselor at Annapolis.

In 2002 she returned to technology as project officer for an undersecretary of the Navy. In 2003 and 2004 she was in Baghdad, Iraq as deputy executive officer in the communications support office of the Coalition Provisional Authority. "That means I provided communications support to Ambassador Bremer," she says.

The support, including phones and computers, was for the Green Zone. "I was one of the first IT people to go, and it was scary there at times. But God was with me, and my friends and family prayed daily.

"I developed a tremendous appreciation for those who were doing the fighting."

Lindsay was in Iraq for six months and in Bahrain for a year. She didn't see her two young children for more than two years.

But she's proud to feel that she's making a difference as a woman and a minority. She is a member of the National Naval Officer Association, which focuses on the concerns of minority officers.

When she graduated from Annapolis in 1992 she was one of only four black women in her class. "Now when I go back, as I did this year to a minority women's conference, and the midshipmen see what we've accomplished, they're inspired," Lindsay says with pride.

D/C

Laurel McKee Ranger is a freelance business writer in Randolph, NJ.

Back to Top