Many organizations – especially in tech – have found that pointing out how many jobs they offer to be a key marketing factor. With so many eyes watching online this past year, it’s been an especially important message for companies like Amazon or Google to proclaim to the world how much good they are doing by adding jobs to the economy. It’s been a strong year in defense – in spite of a global pandemic, so it’s not a bad strategy as we head into the second half of the fiscal year and face down a budget decision in August under a new administration. The DoD is a large employer with a large stake in the budget process every year, so the job factor is a key component in the messaging game – for contractors and federal government alike. So whether that means emphasizing the quantity of jobs or even the role the agency or organization played in helping the vaccination process, that communication could be helpful in the budget process this year.
Layoffs Impacting the Cleared Industry
Although hiring is still happening, for global analytics company, SAS, they are also cutting about 100 jobs. While SAS intended to skip layoffs from the pandemic, they were not immune to the ongoing need to make staffing adjustments this year. The analytics giant has close to 14,000 employees worldwide and supports commercial and defense sector.
“Permanent changes to business operations, some directly related to digital transformation of the business that were already in motion before the pandemic, affected several roles within the company,” said Shannon Heath, corporate PR manager at SAS.
Hiring impacting the Cleared Industry
The Missile Defense Agency (MDA) awarded Northrop Grumman and Raytheon Missiles & Defense a contract worth up to $3.93 billion. The contract has different components that team up multiple defense contractors across the U.S. Although some of the risk reduction and technology development work will be done in Arizona and Utah, Alabama will be a focus spot for Raytheon on their Next Generation Interceptor program.
“The Northrop Grumman / Raytheon Technologies team’s NGI program office will be based in Huntsville, Alabama,” said Terry Feehan, Northrop Grumman vice president and program director. “Huntsville is the nation’s home for missile defense, hosting not only the preponderance of the MDA but also each of the interceptor contractor providers. This community knows the criticality of the mission – to defend our nation and its deployed forces, and that support helps attract and retain the critical expertise needed. This is, absolutely, the right place for our new home.”
“There is no other capability like this deployed in the world today,” said Melissa Morrison-Ellis, deputy program director for the Northrop team program. “We brought together the best minds in the industry to rapidly deliver a solution to the Missile Defense Agency critical to the future of homeland defense.”
MDA Director and Vice Admiral Jon Hill said the end goal of this competitive contract is an interceptor that defends America in for years to come. This program gives contractors many employment options with large defense contracting names like Lockheed Martin, Aerojet, Raytheon, and Northrop Grumman.
Cleared Employer at Work: AMAZON
Opportunity to Watch
While artificial intelligence gets a lot of love, one capability that continues to garner political and defense budget attention is hypersonic technology. As organizations like MACH-20 LLC pick up key material scientists, it illustrates the importance of the right talent as a factor in supporting the DoD and intelligence community – as MACH-20 does. Mach-20 has locations in Alexandria, VA and Huntsville, AL, supporting key federal government clients with technical consulting on all things hypersonic and space.
“After decades of inattention, there is a broad recognition that America needs investment in hypersonic technology, especially given the undivided focus our competitors are giving to this critical area. So when presented with the opportunity to hire one of our field’s most recognized experts, we jumped at the chance. With more than 30 years of experience, Dr. Poisl solidifies MACH-20’s reputation as a leader in providing unbiased technical assessment of state of the art and emerging hypersonic technology,” said Jesse Margiotta, co-founder and chief scientist of MACH-20.
Dr. Poisl spent time as a Senior Engineering Fellow and the Hypersonic Materials Lead for TBG and HAWC at Raytheon Missile Systems, as well as supporting academia and industry.
“I’m thrilled for the opportunity to contribute to MACH-20’s mission of Accelerating Critical Technology for National Defense. The many years I spent in industry were fantastic, but providing the Defense Department non-advocate technical insight is an excellent opportunity to have a bigger impact on American competitiveness,” says Poisl.
