Margarita Howard did not arrive at the CEO role of HX5 through a conventional business track. Her path began in the Air Force, where she gained early exposure to the clearance requirements and mission-focused culture that now define much of HX5’s government contracting work.
That background shapes how Margarita Howard thinks about the eight fellows HX5 has hosted since 2021 through the Hiring Our Heroes Corporate Fellowship Program, maintaining a steady two fellows per year. The program lets active-duty service members work with civilian employers during their final 180 days before separation, while continuing to receive military pay and benefits.
Mission Work That Mirrors Military Service
HX5, a service-disabled veteran-owned and women-owned small business with around 1,000 employees, supports Department of Defense and NASA missions including advanced weapons research and modeling and simulation for defense and space programs. Howard has pointed to this kind of work as especially well suited to veterans transitioning out of technical military roles.
“The work we do is very exciting. Some of it is not being done anywhere else in the world,” Howard says, describing why she believes meaningful project work helps retain talent as much as compensation does. A fellow coming from an Air Force engineering assignment, for instance, might continue supporting similar systems but now from a contractor’s vantage point.
Howard also emphasizes what fellows gain beyond technical continuity: exposure to procurement processes and contract administration that active-duty service rarely covers. Operating across more than 20 states and 70 government locations, HX5 gives fellows a broad view of how contractor work actually functions, preparing them for careers that build directly on the specialized training and operational instincts they developed while still in uniform.
That broad exposure matters, Howard says, because many fellows arrive without a clear sense of what contracting work looks like day to day. Rather than leaving fellows to piece that picture together on their own, HX5 pairs them with staff who can walk through how a program office interacts with a contractor, how deliverables get tracked, and how clearance requirements shape everyday assignments. Howard sees that guidance as one of the more lasting contributions HX5 makes to each fellow’s career, regardless of where they end up working afterward. Refer to this article to learn more.
Find more information about Howard on https://www.finsmes.com/2026/01/margarita-howard-on-how-hx5s-defense-origins-launched-its-expansion-into-nasa-contracting.html