Margarita Howard did not learn about veteran transition from a textbook. As CEO of HX5, a service-disabled veteran-owned aerospace and defense contractor, she draws on her own path out of the Air Force to shape how the company welcomes former service members into civilian careers.
Since 2021, HX5 has hosted eight fellows through the Hiring Our Heroes Corporate Fellowship Program, a Department of Defense SkillBridge initiative that places active-duty members with civilian employers during their final months of service. Howard has kept the commitment steady at two fellows each year, a pace she considers sustainable for a company of roughly 1,000 employees.
A Personal Starting Point
“My background was influenced by military service,” Margarita Howard says of the culture she has built at HX5. Her time in the Air Force gave her direct exposure to clearance requirements, chain of command, and the operational habits that carry over into defense contracting work.
That familiarity matters because HX5 operates across more than 20 states and 70 government sites, supporting NASA and Department of Defense missions in engineering, research, and mission operations. Much of that work demands clearances and comfort with government environments, qualities many veterans already carry with them.
Structured, Not Sporadic
Rather than hiring veterans on an ad hoc basis, Howard has built a repeatable structure around the fellowship. Fellows spend twelve weeks split between hands-on project work and professional development, learning skills like corporate communication that military training does not always cover.
The approach reflects a broader pattern in the defense contracting sector, where firms with fewer resources than giants such as Lockheed Martin or Booz Allen Hamilton must find efficient ways to bring veteran talent on board. For Margarita Howard, the answer has been consistency: two fellows annually, year after year, rather than a one-time gesture.
That steady cadence, she suggests, tells transitioning service members that HX5 sees veteran hiring as a lasting commitment rather than a recruiting talking point tied to any single contract cycle. See related link for more information.