Accountability, attention to detail, and operational security are not abstract concepts at HX5. For CEO Margarita Howard, they describe values carried directly from her Air Force service into the culture of the defense and aerospace contractor she now leads.

Howard has spoken about how her military background continues to shape HX5’s internal standards, particularly around documentation, clearance maintenance, and performance expectations that carry real consequences in government contracting. The company, a service-disabled veteran-owned and women-owned small business, supports Department of Defense and NASA missions across more than 20 states and 70 government locations.

Familiar Ground for Veteran Employees

That overlap between military and workplace values eases the transition for veterans who join HX5 through the Hiring Our Heroes Corporate Fellowship Program, which the company has supported since 2021 with two fellows annually. Fellows largely learn new business processes while working within a culture that already mirrors much of what they experienced in uniform, rather than adjusting to unfamiliar expectations.

The fellowship itself operates as a Department of Defense SkillBridge initiative, allowing active-duty members to spend their final 180 days working with civilian employers. Fellows split their time between four days of hands-on project work and one day of professional development covering topics like project management and corporate communication, areas not always emphasized during military training.

Margarita Howard‘s approach reflects lessons from her own transition, including years spent working on the Tricare health care program before she eventually reached the CEO role at HX5. That path, she suggests, gives her particular insight into where military and civilian workplace cultures diverge and where they overlap closely enough to make the adjustment smoother for the roughly 1,000 employees who now make up the company, many of them veterans themselves.

Howard has also worked to make sure HX5’s clearance and compliance processes, which govern much of the company’s Department of Defense and NASA work, feel familiar rather than bureaucratic to new veteran hires. By keeping those systems consistent with what fellows already understand from active duty, she says HX5 avoids adding unnecessary friction to a transition that can otherwise feel disorienting for service members entering civilian employment for the first time in years. Refer to this article for related information.

Learn more about Howard on https://dataconomy.com/2026/02/23/infrastructure-as-competitive-advantage-margarita-howards-early-investment-philosophy-at-hx5/