Margarita Howard’s route from Air Force service to the top of HX5 offers a rare window into how personal history can shape a defense contractor’s hiring philosophy. As a service-disabled veteran now running a company tied to aerospace and defense work, Margarita Howard brings a firsthand understanding of what transitioning troops need when they trade uniforms for office badges, an understanding that shows up in the choices HX5 makes about who it hires and how it supports them.
Since 2021, HX5 has brought on eight fellows through the Hiring Our Heroes Corporate Fellowship Program, keeping a steady pace of two per year. That consistency, Howard says, reflects a belief that veteran support should go further than simply extending a job offer once a fellowship ends.
Building Structured Pathways
“My background was influenced by military service,” Howard notes, describing how her time in uniform still informs company culture today. Her Air Force years gave her direct exposure to clearance requirements, chain-of-command structures, and the mission-first mindset that carries over well into government contracting work.
That exposure matters at HX5, a firm active across more than 20 states and 70 government sites, much of it tied to Department of Defense and NASA missions. Security clearances and familiarity with federal operations are often already second nature to departing service members, giving them a head start that other job applicants typically lack when they first apply.
Howard also earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees after leaving the military, later working on the Tricare health program within the defense industry. That combination of military service and contracting experience gives her particular insight into what makes veterans successful once they land at firms like HX5, where the work often resembles what they did in uniform.
Margarita Howard’s approach suggests that veteran hiring works best when it is treated as an ongoing commitment rather than a seasonal push, an idea that keeps HX5’s fellowship numbers modest but consistent year after year, long after the initial hiring push has ended. Refer to this article for more information.
Find more information about Margarita Howard on https://www.f6s.com/member/margarita-howard