Margarita Howard built HX5’s reputation by recruiting seasoned professionals with years of defense and aerospace experience. The founder and CEO of the Florida-based contractor prioritized candidates who understood the peculiarities of government work: people who knew NASA protocols and Department of Defense culture before their first day.
Then universities entered the picture, and Howard discovered something she hadn’t anticipated.
“One of our most valuable partnerships has been with academic institutions,” Margarita Howard says. “Collaborating with the universities on supporting research initiatives, it’s helped us stay ahead of the emerging technologies, and also foster a pipeline of talented graduates that may come to work for us or contribute on a short-term basis.”
This shift reflects a defense contracting industry confronting workforce pressures as experienced professionals retire faster than replacements emerge, while commercial technology companies offer competing opportunities.
“We prefer to hire experienced individuals, so we look for people who have worked with, or supported, NASA or the Department of Defense, as this experience is always very helpful,” Howard explains. “Experience in their respective fields, while supporting these agencies’ respective programs and missions, is very different from experience gained from working in the commercial world.”
Yet the math of workforce supply and demand are pushing defense contractors toward academic institutions.
Defense Industry Confronts STEM Talent Shortage
In 2023 National Defense Magazine reported that 82% of companies in the defense industrial base find it difficult to locate qualified STEM workers. The Semiconductor Industry Association projects the United States will face a deficit of approximately 1.4 million technicians, computer scientists and engineers by 2030.
Defense industry workforce size currently sits at approximately 1.1 million, substantially below its mid-1980s peak of 3.2 million workers, according to the National Defense Industrial Association’s “Vital Signs” report. Meanwhile, research from the National Defense Industrial Association found that 80% of defense contractors indicate it is “somewhat difficult” or “very difficult” to compete with non-defense companies for STEM talent.
Margarita Howard on HX5’s Workforce Requirements
Howard acknowledges recruiting difficulties for highly specialized positions requiring unique combinations of technical skills, security clearances and specific expertise.
The nature of HX5’s government contracts creates exacting talent requirements.
“Our focus is professional support services in research and development and in specialty areas, primarily the STEM fields of science, technology, engineering, and math,” Howard says. “So, across the DoD and NASA, those are the specialties that make up our primary workforce. They have to have advanced education.”
The company looks for what Howard calls “purple unicorns”—professionals with hard-to-find combinations of skills and experiences.
Howard uses mission enthusiasm as a recruiting tool to compete with commercial technology companies. She tells potential recruits: “You have to get up in the morning and be excited about the particular program you’re supporting. Let’s get to the moon, let’s accomplish this mission overseas.”
The company’s retention success suggests this approach works. Many HX5 employees have remained with the organization for over a decade. “I’m very proud of the team that we have,” Howard says.
Yet even successful retention can’t fully offset the industry’s demographic pressures and expanding mission requirements. Closer partnerships with universities offer one potential solution.
University Partnerships Address Workforce Challenges
The collaboration with academic institutions provides HX5 advantages beyond immediate hiring needs. Research partnerships can expose the company to emerging technologies before they reach mainstream adoption. Graduate students and faculty working on short-term projects bring fresh perspectives to established practices. The relationship creates pathways for talented graduates who might otherwise pursue commercial technology careers.
The Pentagon has recognized this type of strategic importance for universities in defense workforce development. In 2024, the DoD awarded a $190 million cooperative agreement to the Research Triangle Institute and its consortium of partners to deliver the Defense Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics Education Consortium. It served 208,115 students and 8,858 educators in its first three years.
Other federal STEM education initiatives are aiming to create sustainable talent pipelines. The DoD STEM 2021 Strategic Plan established four main goals: inspiring community engagement in defense STEM education programs, attracting current and future workforce through multiple pathways, increasing participation of underrepresented groups, and advancing program efficiency through evaluation.
HX5 is one of many contractors taking more active roles in connecting with universities to recruit STEM talent. Lockheed Martin, the country’s largest government contractor with more than 114,000 employees, maintains partnerships with dozens of campuses nationwide through programs including Lockheed Martin Day events featuring flight simulations, technology demonstrations and on-site interviews. One Lockheed executive recently stated that approximately 56,000 of the company’s engineers and technicians, 35% of its technical workforce, could retire within a few years, necessitating a robust talent pipeline.
HX5’s Approach Balances Experience With Innovation
Howard describes her company’s relationship with universities as “very eye-opening and rewarding.” The partnerships allow HX5 to maintain its preference for experienced hires while building relationships with emerging talent before graduation.
The company continues emphasizing rigorous standards. “When we talk to business entrepreneurs or new staff, we remind them: We know that what we do is not easy to do, and it’s very expensive to ensure it’s done right,” Howard says. “A phrase we use often is, ‘If it were easy, everyone would do it.'”
The university pipeline addresses another workforce challenge: attracting Generation Z employees with different career expectations than previous generations. Howard notes that HX5 has “modernized some of our internal communication processes to include those platforms that we believe that they’re comfortable in, such as instant messaging, interactive project management, and some tool/workspace changes.”
The defense industry’s workforce challenges will likely intensify as technological complexity increases and experienced professionals retire. Howard’s initially unexpected discovery—that universities could become valuable partners rather than just distant sources of entry-level candidates—reflects a broader industry recognition that traditional recruiting approaches no longer suffice. The “purple unicorns” HX5 seeks remain rare, but academic partnerships expand the terrain where they might be found.
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