TAOS satellite from the Air Force Research Lab.

The specter of threats inside and outside the U.S. has turned a spotlight on the mission of the defense and aerospace industries. Engineers in these industries see their jobs in a different light since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, and their complex aftermath. They feel a renewed mission to find solutions, develop technologies, and help ensure that their companies come up with the products the nation is counting on.

While other industries ride the economic roller coaster, defense and aerospace have been relatively stable. Hoover’s Online, the business information source, notes that even prior to 2000 defense sales equaled all the other aerospace components put together. That figure has grown, and will likely continue to grow as the war on terrorism and events in the Middle East unfold.

As the industry continues to gear up, the demand for engineers will continue. Entry level as well as experienced professionals will be in high demand. Many programs and companies do require U.S. citizenship; all are equal opportunity employers holding a high regard for diversity.

Lockheed Martin: largest defense contractor
Lockheed Martin (Bethesda, MD), with more than 125,000 employees, is the nation’s largest defense contractor. The firm is a systems integrator in aerospace and technology services as well as defense, and the prime contractor for many large military programs.

Clearly, Lockheed Martin engineers get the chance to work with all kinds of cutting-edge technology. “This is where a lot of the innovation you see in the marketplace is coming from,” says Linda Olin-Weiss, director of HR staffing services.

Lockheed Martin sees a diverse workplace as essential to its leadership role. In October 2000, CEO Vance Coffman challenged his corporation to provide an environment where all people felt included. “He really emphasized that diversity is a top priority,” says Shan Carr, senior manager for workforce diversity.

Lillian Heizer is tech ops director at Lockheed Martin
New and experienced engineers find working at Lockheed Martin positive and exciting. “We play with the things that other people dream about,” says Lillian Heizer, director of technical operations. “We go to work for fun.”

But of course the industry is far more than cool toys and cool technology. Heizer says engineers can continue to learn and grow within their corporations.

She well remembers when she sat down with a 5100, an early IBM PC, back around 1975. “The machine said, ‘Hello, what is your name?’ and I typed in ‘Lillian’ and it responded with ‘Hello, Lillian. How are you today?’ I thought that was the coolest thing.”

Heizer admits that curiosity got the best of her. It led her to CS and eventually into systems programming. She received her BSCS from the Florida Institute of Technology in 1984, and joined Unisys in Lexington Park, MD as a systems programmer in naval tech and traffic control. She moved over to Lockheed Martin in 1989.

Initially she worked on command and control systems. But after a couple of years, “I was not satisfied working with the little bit of information you receive as a systems programmer. I wanted to grow from knowing parts of what was going on in the company to understanding the complete picture. I wanted to take my engineering background and extend it further.”

Heizer progressed from programmer to project manager, then went into business development. She also got into company development programs for program management and leadership.

She completed an MSCS from George Washington University (Washington, DC) in 1999, and received her MBA from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business in 2001.

Shortly after graduation, Heizer was offered her current role of director of technical ops. Now she’s heading up an 1,800-person engineering organization in Lockheed Martin’s Management and Data Systems business unit (Philadelphia, PA). The group provides engineering assistance to the Central Intelligence Agency, the National Security Agency and the National Imagery and Mapping Agency.

“We also provide desktop tools that get their data streams from multiple sources,” she notes. “With our tools, customers take those various data streams and turn them into meaningful displays. It’s a pretty broad spectrum of IT tools we provide.”

The management role, she reflects, often comes down to “removing things that get in the way of delivering solutions and services.

“As far as I’m concerned, I’m just getting started,” Heizer declares. “I plan on continuing to learn and grow within this corporation. They invested a great deal of time and resources in me. They are just now beginning to see the return on that investment.”

Lockheed Martin “has a holistic view of the engineer,” says software manager Yolanda Liu.

Yolanda Liu manages software engineering at Lockheed Martin
“Ever since I was young, my biggest satisfaction has come from creating with my own thoughts and building with my own hands,” says Yolanda Liu. Her career with Lockheed Martin continues that satisfaction into her professional life.

Liu received a BSCS from the University of Kentucky in 1998. Her 2001 MSCS is from Johns Hopkins University (Baltimore, MD). Lockheed Martin gave her her first job out of college.

“The other companies I interviewed with focused on technical skills,” she says. “Lockheed Martin was just as concerned that I be well balanced. They had a more holistic view of the engineer.”

Today Liu is a software engineering manager for Lockheed Martin Mission Systems (Gaithersburg, MD). Her team developed the Global Transportation Network, a system that supports the post-September-11 Operation Enduring Freedom. Liu’s team built software that allows military personnel to track their vital supply orders, troops and other assets. The system, she explains, applies Web-based technologies to support forces worldwide.

“It’s also my job to facilitate team growth and personal development,” she says.

Vince Anderson.

Northrop Grumman: second largest defense contractor
The recent purchases of TRW, Litton Industries and Newport News Shipbuilding make Northrop Grumman the world’s largest shipbuilder and second largest U.S. defense contractor. The $25 billion enterprise operates across seven sectors: Information Technology (Herndon, VA), Mission Systems (Reston, VA), Integrated Systems (El Segundo, CA), Newport News (Newport News, VA), Ship Systems (Pascagoula, MS), Electronic Systems (Baltimore, MD) and Space Technology (Redondo Beach, CA.

Northrop Grumman Space Technology has 8,600 employees in locations around the country. Vince Anderson, talent acquisition manager for engineering, explains that the company’s engineers work on aerospace and defense systems, and satellites for communications, surveillance, weather, avionics and science.

Space Technology systems link military units together via space-based communication networks.

Deborah Fitzgerald-Simmons: doing something that’s never been done before.

Deborah Fitzgerald-Simmons: spacecraft manager at TRW/Northrop
At Northrop Grumman Space Technology, Deborah Fitzgerald-Simmons is spacecraft manager for the James Webb space telescope. It’s a wonderful job, she says.

The Webb space telescope is planned as the successor to the Hubble. The project was awarded to TRW in September 2002 by NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. Now TRW/Northrop Grumman will lead development of the telescope and build the spacecraft to carry it. Launch is proposed for the second half of this decade.

Fitzgerald-Simmons is responsible for the team developing power systems, propulsion, communication and control for the spacecraft. “Essentially, we’re doing something that has never been done before,” she says with something like awe. “This will be the largest employable optic ever to be launched. Many of the technologies will be new; for example, the sun shields for some of the instruments.”

Fitzgerald-Simmons has a 1982 BS in aerospace engineering from San Diego State University (San Diego, CA) and a 1985 MSEE from the University of Southern California. While she was in school she found a part-time job at TRW, and she’s been there ever since.

“In that first job, I did whatever needed to get done,” she says. “It was not glamorous, but it let me get into the industry and start to learn what it takes to execute a major project.”

When she got her BS she went to work full time, supporting a flight software program for military customers. She worked at that for three years while she studied for her masters via a TRW fellowship program.

Soon she was developing simulations to test guidance and navigation systems satellites. “I was drawing on a lot of college course work,” she recalls, like programming, control systems, propulsion, EE, flight and orbital mechanics, even basic physics.

Next she joined a very small team of people working “to figure out how to make a satellite with a failed earth sensor useful again.” Later she supported satellite launches, and worked in the design phase of satellites.

In 1999 Fitzgerald-Simmons became a spacecraft systems engineer supporting the next-generation space telescope. Then the program manager sponsored her for her spacecraft manager position. “He and I both felt it would be a good fit for me.”

She thinks she’s the luckiest person around. “I can effect change,” she says. “I’m working on the most exciting program in the company.”

Maren Cattonar: rotations at Northrop Grumman Electronic Systems
As a student at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (Troy, NY), Maren Cattonar interned twice with Northrop Grumman’s Integrated Systems Sector, as well as with a startup dot-com and a county legislator. She also did a co-op with a technology consulting company. “It was these job experiences that helped direct me to a career in engineering,” she says.

That, and the genes. Cattonar’s grandfather, father, aunt and several uncles were all engineers, and all applauded heartily when she completed her 2001 BS in industrial and management engineering plus economics.

She moved directly into Northrop Grumman’s professional development rotation program. She began with stints as an industrial engineer and a marketing representative. Now she’s on her third rotation, in the systems engineering department of Northrop’s Electronics Systems sector (ESS). ESS has 24,000 employees in 51 operating locations worldwide; it designs, develops and manufactures a wide range of defense and commercial electronics and systems.

“The work here is challenging, interesting and diversified,” says Cattonar. “The major challenge is getting up to speed with all of the advanced technology. The learning curve is very steep, but I love working with my talented colleagues. They are very knowledgeable in all aspects of the work.”

Mosetta Ellis is part of the imagery geospatial systems group at BAE Systems.

Mosetta Ellis manages system hardware design at BAE Systems
BAE Systems (Rockville, MD) is a transnational company involved in aerospace, defense and systems. Mosetta Ellis is part of the imagery geospatial systems group, working as the system hardware manager on a program for the U.S. National Imagery and Mapping Agency. She coordinates hardware and design tasks, including schedules, budgets and personnel assignments.

Ellis has been an engineer for almost twenty years, and wanted to be one long before that. “My oldest brother was in the engineering program at Southern University (Baton Rouge, LA). He and some friends came to our high school and did a presentation on what engineering was all about.”

So Ellis applied herself to pre-calc, physics and chemistry – “a lot easier than English and writing,” she says with a smile – and earned an engineering scholarship to Southern. She did two summer co-ops with Olin Chemical Co (Lake Charles, LA) as a process and maintenance engineer, got her BSME in 1982 and moved to California, where she found a position with a division of General Dynamics (San Diego, CA).

Her first assignment was on complex mechanical design and packaging for B-1B and F-16 aircraft test stations. She continued as part of the mechanical design effort, “working for many years under strict military processes and procedures,” which she considers to be valuable discipline. Meanwhile, her division underwent several mergers and eventually became part of BAE Systems.

The MSIS she’s earning from the University of Phoenix (San Diego, CA) helped her achieve her current manager’s job. “There is no mistaking the importance of the products and services we deliver to our customers,” she says. Her work on military projects, she adds, prepared her to handle whatever her current job throws at her.

The Johns Hopkins APL works in the national interest
The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL, Laurel, MD) is involved in more than 200 programs of national importance, from defense systems engineering to space science. The not-for-profit, university-affiliated R&D center has a staff of 3,350, two-thirds of them engineers and scientists. The Department of Defense, NASA and other government agencies are APL’s major clients.

APL takes a special interest in folks who have technical knowledge plus the ability to apply it. And it’s the largest campus in the largest part-time graduate engineering program in the country.

“Security is very hot right now,” says Cheryl Resch of Johns Hopkins APL.

Cheryl Resch works in network security at APL
Cheryl Resch is a senior engineer in the power project systems department at Johns Hopkins APL. Right now she’s managing two projects. One involves developing software to automatically search the Web for computer vulnerabilities. “It is very important to have computer networks secure,” she says.

The other is a related project for networking U.S. communications to deployed forces around the world. In addition to managing the project, she serves as technical lead.

“Security is very hot right now,” Resch notes, and it’s an area she enjoys. To keep on top of advances in the field she is active in the Information Assurance Technical Framework Forum (IATFF), which is sponsored by the National Security Agency to promote dialog on network security. She also takes classes, both in person and via the Web.

Resch holds a 1986 BSME and a 1988 MSCS from the University of Maryland. In school she was a co-op with Baltimore Gas and Electric (Baltimore, MD), but hoped for a career closer to the cutting edge.

Soon after receiving her MS she happened to meet a manager from APL, who suggested that she join the lab and work in his group. “What I did fit perfectly with his area, which was aeronautics,” she explains. She spent the next eight years in APL’s aerospace department, working on aerodynamic heat-transfer analysis for missiles in flight. Later she segued into the CS research group and developed her interest in network security.

APL is a great place for engineers, Resch finds. She expects to be given plenty of opportunity to expand her expertise in information security and possibly lead a group of her own in the future.

Dr James DeBardelaben is a supervisor in national security technology at JHU APL.

Dr James DeBardelaben: security technology at APL
James DeBardelaben, PhD, is a section supervisor in the national security technology department of APL. He arrived at the lab in 2001, but he came as a veteran of the IT industry, by way of Wall Street, IT consulting and a great deal of schoolwork.

DeBardelaben likes the solidity of the defense industry. “This has got to be one of the most stable areas around,” he says. “I’ve never worked in a place where colleagues have been on the job longer than I’ve been alive!”

DeBardelaben got his BSEE from Brown University (Providence, RI) in 1991, his MS in computer engineering from Princeton University (Princeton, NJ) in 1993, and his PhD in electrical and computer engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology in 1998.

All this concentrating began with hearing someone talk about engineering when he was in elementary school. “I thought it was a cool thing to do,” says DeBardelaben.

In high school he joined the Junior Engineering Technical Society (JETS), but his best feel for engineering came with a summer internship with Intel (Hillsboro, OR). He loved it, and spent all his undergrad summers working there, testing computers, working on preliminary designs and preparing audit documentation on the 486 microprocessor.

When he received his PhD he joined Morgan Stanley (New York, NY) as an IT associate. Building global sales and trading systems in this fast-paced environment was exciting, but the next year he left to join a small consulting firm, initially working on Y2K for the City of Atlanta.

“That job built the interpersonal skills I needed,” he says. “I learned how to deal with the intangibles that influence people to get the job done.” He stayed there until he got the offer from APL.

At APL, DeBardelaben has worked as a member of staff, supervisor, and senior member of professional staff, all in his first six months. Now he’s in his security supervisor job.

This multi-faceted position draws on much of his previous background. He’s lead software engineer and system engineer for autonomous sensors, where wireless sensor-based networks are built. The sensors detect external activity in a surveillance environment, communicating via satellites and ground stations.

DeBardelaben manages the entire software infrastructure as well as his team of engineers and CS people. “The group I joined was young and energetic,” he says. “They wanted to grow and grow quick. I knew it was a place where I could have an immediate impact.”

At Johns Hopkins APL, Barbara Leary works with top researchers in the propulsion field.

Barbara Leary is an aerospace engineer at APL
When Barbara Leary was a kid, her family lived near Westover Air Force Base in Chicopee, MA. “I would go to the air shows with my dad when I was a teenager,” she says. “I would talk to as many people as I could, especially the women. They were the ones who really impressed me.”

Leary already excelled at math and science. When her mother suggested checking into engineering, Leary realized that the field would be a good fit for her.

She attended Western New England College (Springfield, MA) for her 1995 BSME, then went to the Joint Institute for the Advancement of Flight Sciences of George Washington University at Langley Research Center (Hampton, VA) for her 1998 MSEE, which emphasized aeroacoustics.

Her first job was as an analyst at the Naval Surface Warfare Center, Indian Head division (Indian Head, MD). “I got to use my computational flow dynamics background for modeling Navy systems,” she says. “You begin to learn how what you are doing affects people’s lives in the field.”

Two years later she learned of an opening at APL. “It was for someone to do computational and rocket modeling assessment, the same thing I did at Indian Head.” Leary got the job, as an aerospace engineer in the APL research and technology development center. She’s working now on analytical and computational models for propulsion systems for Navy and NASA programs. It’s exactly what she wanted to do.

“You get to work with top researchers in the field of propulsion,” she says. “You have many opportunities to grow. That’s why I like to work here.”

Deuel Fider: “I opted for ITT because I saw how physics and EE related here.”

Deuel Fider: space testing at ITT Industries
“I had offers from Lockheed Martin and Raytheon, but I opted for ITT because I saw how physics and EE related here. I saw that here more than anywhere else,” says Deuel Fider. So when he received his 2002 BS in physics and EE from Norfolk State University (Norfolk, VA) he joined engineering firm ITT Industries (Ft. Wayne, IN) and became a test engineer in the same department where he’d done his internships.

Fider is a member of the polar-orbiting environmental-satellite test team. He had spent two college summers working on paperwork associated with the team’s mission. Now he’s actually involved in testing equipment and instruments, collecting and analyzing test data. “I’m actually performing the tests and not just reading about them,” he says with pleasure.

Fider works in the space testing department. It is part of ITT’s aerospace and communication division, which builds instruments for remote-sensing satellites used in forecasting the weather and generating the swirling images you see on TV. Testing the instruments is a thorough process that can take up to a year. Such thoroughness pays off: in most cases the ITT instruments are still going strong when the satellites end their useful life, Fider says.

He looks forward to getting more experience on the test floor, “so I can be more involved in running test procedures and analyze data in greater depth.”

There are many career possibilities at ITT, he says. “As you wind down a project, you know another project will start up. It is very future-oriented here.”

Michael Hollis, Jr is a technical staff member at The Aerospace Corp.

Michael Hollis, Jr is a tech staff member at The Aerospace Corp
When Michael Hollis, Jr received his BSEE from Clemson University (Clemson, SC) in 1997, he accepted a fellowship to work at Lawrence Livermore National Lab (LLNL, Livermore, CA). The fellowship was through the National Consortium for Graduate Degrees for Minorities in Engineering and Science (GEM).

After eight months at LLNL, he enrolled at the University of Michigan. He graduated in 2000 with an MSEE with an emphasis in electromagnetics. One of the companies that came to campus that spring was The Aerospace Corp (El Segundo, CA), and Hollis signed on.

Now he’s a member of technical staff in the electromagnetic techniques department. The work is classified; he can only say he’s involved in testing and running simulations on a variety of devices – and that the work suits his personality.

“I get the chance to do a variety of things here. I still use my basic skill set, but I apply it to many different areas. I do a lot of research, reading and setting up experiments. I find that both challenging and rewarding.”

In addition to his work, Hollis is chairing the twenty-sixth annual Robert Herndon Engineering and Science Seminar, an Aerospace-sponsored competition held every year for Los Angeles-area middle and high school students. “It’s a chance for the kids to get exposed to engineering and science,” Hollis says.

“Moog offered me the technical challenge I was looking for,” says Lesley Weitz.

Lesley Weitz works on the F-18 project at Moog
Lesley Weitz thinks she became an engineer because of her physics teacher in high school. “He really loved what he did,” she says. That inspiration took her all the way to the State University of New York-Buffalo, where she received her BSME last year.

In school she did a co-op with an automotive company, but when she graduated she went to work for Moog, Inc (East Aurora, NY), the aerospace flight controls company. “Moog offered me the technical challenge I was looking for,” she says.

Weitz is currently the product engineer for the DoD’s F-18 leading edge/hardware program, as well as for hydraulic pumps and motors for the Joint Strike Fighter program. “They encourage you to go ahead and work on the projects you are interested in,” she says.

For the F-18, she coordinates the work of the assembly and test groups. “I work on improving the process,” she says. “We’re always looking for better quality, lower costs and better turnaround times.”

A project engineer at Moog is involved in the business as well as the technical side of the work. Weitz works directly with customers, “making sure things are in place to meet schedules.” On the tech side, she works directly with design engineers to test the effectiveness of changes on designs in progress.

She’s finding the company very supportive. “Right now, I’m pursuing my MS and they are really accommodating about my schedule. Whatever you need, there are always people willing to help you out.”

Raytheon senior software engineer John Kennedy: “I do a lot of customer interface.”

John Kennedy: at Raytheon, following the software cycle
One memorable day, Charles F. Bolden, Jr, the African American astronaut, returned to his high school in Columbia, SC to talk to the students about careers. John Kennedy can still feel the excitement of that visit. “I got the chance to talk to him one-on-one about engineering. He told me it’s a tough subject to study, but no matter how tough it gets I should persevere and continue on.”

Kennedy took that good advice. And when he got his BSCS from Clemson University (Clemson, SC) in 1997, he went to work for Software Technology Corp (Melbourne, FL) as a software engineer on satellite command control software.

Two years later he joined Raytheon (St. Petersburg, FL), which includes a variety of aerospace interests as vital components of its diversified technologies. Kennedy was hired as a software engineer II, but “I was always searching and seeking out tasks of increasing responsibility,” he says.

Last year he was promoted to senior software engineer, and now he’s part of the largest project that Raytheon has at its 1,400-person facility. It’s a Navy-funded project called Cooperative Engagement Capability (CEC). The idea, Kennedy says, is to take a group of battleships and change how they sense their surroundings.

“Historically, each ship has its own sensors and radar, and forms its own picture of air traffic. CEC networks all the ships together to create a composite aerial view, so all the ships in the battle group can see the same picture and targets. This allows for early detection and defense against hostile targets,” Kennedy explains.

Some 250 techies are working on the $100 million contract. Kennedy’s role is to follow the software through its life cycle, from concept through building and maintenance. “I do a lot of customer interface,” he says. “It’s a chance to meet influential people in the DoD.”

Kennedy feels that Raytheon is well positioned to capitalize on the growth of the defense industry, and that its diverse workforce has a lot to do with that. “Diversity is critical to the competitiveness and success of this company,” he says.

Kristina Langer does analytical structural research at the Air Force Research Lab.

Kristina Langer: structural research at the Air Force Research Lab
“The new breed of researchers isn’t interested in trying to solve some equation for the next forty years. We want to do something really fun and interesting,” says Kristina Langer.

Over her career, Langer has moved from one exciting project to the next. For the past twelve years she’s been with the Air Force Research Laboratory, right now as a research engineer in the analytical structural mechanics branch of the Air Vehicles Directorate.

“My time is split between in-house research in aircraft structural analysis, and reviewing similar research performed for the Air Force by defense contractors,” she says. One of her current projects deals with structural integrity issues in locations that are hard to see, in particular the exhaust-washed part of the airframe.

She’s also working to develop analytical tools and methods that will allow for more efficient and effective certification of Air Force aircraft.

“I’ve only been in this position about six months, but I really like the mix of projects I’m working on. Each has a different technical focus and calls for different responsibilities on my part.”

Langer grew up outside Binghamton, NY, where her mother was a biologist at the state university. Langer went to Ohio State University to study civil engineering with an emphasis on structural engineering. Throughout her time at school she participated in geotechnical engineering research. “That was a great experience,” she says. “I think that is what got me interested in research.”

When she received her BSCE summa cum laude in 1987 she went to work for Korda/Nemeth Engineering Inc (Columbus, OH), a structural engineering firm. “They offered so much opportunity for advancement and responsibility,” she remembers. “By the time I left three years later to go to grad school, I was not only designing building structures but also troubleshooting their construction in the field.”

During grad school at Ohio State she spent summers doing research at Wright Patterson Air Force Base. This led to a full-time job at the Air Force Research Lab after she completed her MSCE in 1991.

She began as a research scientist in the Air Vehicles Directorate, then went on to be an aerospace engineer on a survivability and flight safety program. Now she has her structural research job.

Langer authors technical books and documents and is active with organizations ranging from the National Defense Industry Society to the U.S. Air Force Museum (Dayton, OH).

“I think this is an incredibly exciting time to be an aerospace engineer,” she says. “The world, and our perception of it, has changed drastically in recent times. It calls for innovative technologies and inventive solutions.

“This is why I, and many of my colleagues, became engineers in the first place.”

D/C

– Skip Waugh is a freelance business writer living in Denver, CO.