Few executives running defense contractors share Margarita Howard‘s particular vantage point: a service-disabled Air Force veteran who now sits at the helm of HX5, a company holding both service-disabled veteran-owned and women-owned small business designations. That background has quietly shaped how the firm approaches hiring transitioning troops year after year.
HX5 operates across more than 20 states and over 70 government locations, supporting Department of Defense and NASA missions that span research and development, engineering, information technology, and mission operations. Much of that work depends on security clearances and comfort with government settings, areas where veterans often arrive with a head start over other candidates.
A Personal Throughline
Howard’s own history includes Air Force service followed by bachelor’s and master’s degrees, plus a stint in the defense industry working on the Tricare military health program. That combination gave her insight into how contractors and government agencies work together long before she reached the CEO’s office at HX5.
Since 2021, HX5 has hosted eight fellows through the Hiring Our Heroes Corporate Fellowship Program, sticking to two per year without deviation. With roughly 1,000 employees, HX5 sits well below the scale of giants like Lockheed Martin, which can absorb far larger numbers of fellows through dedicated recruiting teams built for that purpose.
“The work we do is very exciting. Some of it is not being done anywhere else in the world,” Howard says, adding that meaningful work often keeps employees around as much as pay does for the long term.
Margarita Howard’s leadership at HX5 illustrates how a veteran-owned small business can carve out a durable niche in defense contracting while keeping its founder’s military roots visible in daily hiring decisions across the company. That visibility, in turn, gives prospective hires a concrete example of where a career built around government service can eventually lead, rather than an abstract promise of opportunity. Refer to this article to learn more.
Find more information about Margarita Howard on https://www.margaritahoward.com/
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