At Lockheed Martin, we employ 60,000 engineers, scientists and technologists from nearly every discipline. Each engineer brings unique expertise, talents and vision, but we share a collaborative spirit that transcends borders and backgrounds in the pursuit of progress and solving our nation’s most challenging problems.
Our engineers are constantly visualizing, designing, building, testing and refining products and capabilities that will save lives, help defend our nation or expand our understanding of the universe.
What is the most rewarding part of being an engineer at Lockheed Martin? We asked some of our top talent:
Meet Dr. Clara
Dr. Clara is an optics and materials engineer at Lockheed Martin. Her team and colleagues are developing thin meta-lenses to produce quality images that will replace traditionally bulky infrared sensor components.
With her mother and brother, she fled Cuba for the United States as a 16-year-old who didn’t know English. While she struggled, she never gave up her dream to become an engineer. When working on her undergraduate studies at the University of Central Florida, she learned about optics and has been fascinated with light-matter interactions ever since.
There is nothing more rewarding than knowing the work she does has a purpose.
“We know that the work we do as engineers at Lockheed Martin is important to our country and to the people risking their lives to preserve our freedom. They rely on our products to stay safe.”
Meet Dr. Michael
Dr. Michael is the lead engineer for the X-59 QueSST. He coordinates the technical development of the X-plane design currently being developed in partnership with NASA.
His career path to engineering was a happy accident.
“In elementary school, my mom noticed that my school notebooks were filled with pictures of airplanes I’d drawn instead of paying attention in class,” Dr. Michael said. “She encouraged my interest by buying me books on aviation, and by middle school, I knew I wanted to pursue a career as an engineer designing aircraft myself.”
Dr. Michael is most proud of his multi-site team and their ability to meet NASA’s low-boom challenges.
Recently, he received the prestigious Technical Excellence, AIAA Aerospace Design Engineering Award.
Dr. Michael wants to tell future engineers that it’s important to explore every niche possible.
“When you’re genuinely interested and passionate about a subject, it’s so much easier to put in the hard work that’s needed to overcome those obstacles and get where you want to go.”
Meet Peter
Peter is a research engineer at the Advanced Technology Laboratories, our applied research and development center. He is responsible for leading design, simulation, integration and testing of advanced avionic development solutions.
“It wasn’t until my last year of high school that I realized my love for engineering,” Peter said. “I had wonderful calculus and physics teachers that influenced me to pursue a career in engineering. It just goes to show that great educators can lead you to areas you never thought you would be in!”
The most rewarding part of being an engineer at Lockheed Martin is having the opportunity to work on some of the world’s toughest research problems. Every day, Peter gets to push the boundaries of computational physics for high-speed flight applications.
“The lion’s share of the work is believing in yourself.”