Ngoc Lewis filled a variety of engineering and management roles in both mechanical and systems engineering before she took her current job as engineering recruiting lead for the Integrated Defense Systems (IDS, Tewksbury, MA) business of Raytheon (Waltham, MA). Today it’s her job to bring in an array of talented new engineers for the company.
“I started in design and moved to management,” Lewis notes. As an engineer, a manager and a recruiter, her motto is always “Deliver, deliver, deliver! That’s the reputation I gained early in my career, and it translates directly to management and leadership.”
About IDS
Integrated Defense Systems is a contractor handling work for U.S. and international customers. Those include the U.S. Missile Defense Agency, Armed Forces, and Department of Homeland Security. The business generated $4.2 billion in revenue last year, and has more than 13,500 employees.
Starting out
Lewis was born in Vietnam, where her father worked for the South Vietnamese army and later for the U.S. embassy during the Vietnam War. The family was one of those helicoptered off the roof of the embassy in Saigon in 1975, although “We aren’t the people in the famous picture,” she notes.
Lewis doesn’t remember that eventful time; she was just two years old, the youngest of seven children. “It’s like I was born in the U.S.,” she says.
Growing up, Lewis always felt “the joy” of math and science. “I love problem solving,” she says. “At Raytheon I have a chance to take an issue and logically work out a solution.”
She started at the University of Arizona as an EE major, then switched to ME. She received her BSME in 1996. Her favorite courses were fluid dynamics, thermodynamics and machine design. In 2000 she completed an MS in systems engineering at the same school.
Joining Raytheon
Lewis has been working for various Raytheon ops since 1996. She’s not the only Raytheon employee in her family; a brother is an EE at Raytheon and a sister is a control account manager. “I guess it’s in the genes!” Lewis says with a laugh.
She notes that at the time she graduated a lot of defense companies were running lean. But Hughes Missile Systems, which became Raytheon Missile Systems in 1997, was eager to bring in new grads.
Her first job was as a mechanical design engineer at a Tucson, AZ facility. She started working on a program for the Navy, upgrading the guidance and control capabilities for a forty-year-old missile to help it defend against anti-ship and tactical missiles. She was soon promoted to mechanical lead for one of the sections.
“I did everything from checking the validity of tests, to running a team of eight or ten techies of different disciplines, to making sure we delivered on time and on budget,” Lewis says. “The variety of work gave me opportunities to take on more leadership roles.”
Her final project in Tucson was as airframe team lead on the XM982/TCM merged projectile project. The project, now called Excalibur, is a guided projectile program for the U.S. Army, and Lewis was involved in the trade study and proposal phase. “It was the turning point for me to leave design and go into leadership,” she notes.
While working in Tucson she completed her MS, changing her focus to systems engineering. “I knew I was getting into more leadership roles, and I liked looking at the overall system and seeing what you needed to do to complete and solve the problem,” she says.
Managing at IDS
In 2002 she and her husband, who came from the northeast, had an opportunity to move to Massachusetts. Lewis began with IDS there as a systems requirements engineer for the Patriot surveillance team, developing requirements for detection, tracking, validation and discrimination for radar improvements on the system. “I supported the team by writing and testing requirements, forging into systems engineering,” Lewis says.
As her skills grew she became the lead for a team of systems, software and test engineers working on the missile segment enhancement (MSE) program. This involved integrating missiles built by Lockheed Martin into the Patriot ground system.
Job flexibility
In 2004 she took maternity leave. Raytheon, she notes, is family-friendly; when she was ready to come back the company welcomed her, and let her slowly build her job time from twenty to thirty hours and then to a full work week.
“Raytheon is flexible with working mothers, giving us worthwhile tasks without infringing on the balance we need,” Lewis says.
When she came back to work, Lewis asked for an assignment that would give her more time with her family. Early in 2005 she left the MSE job, which required a lot of travel, and became staffing coordinator and section manager for the systems analysis design and integration directorate (SADID). Recruiting was part of the job, and she did other things, too.
“I still supported the Patriot group, helped with financial planning, put out fires, and managed my group of engineers. I was also staff coordinator in hiring 300 engineers that year. It was a big job.”
Recruiting and more
She began as IDS engineering recruiting lead in late 2006. “We have more than 6,000 engineers and many directorates, so it’s a lot of responsibility,” she says.
She also manages the systems engineering technical development program which sends about thirty new techies on an intensive eighteen-month rotation program. They spend six weeks at each of the Raytheon businesses, preparing to fill the knowledge gap left by retiring engineers.
“I love seeing who we’ll bring into the pipeline and the new technologies coming out of the schools today,” Lewis explains.
She enjoys volunteering in the community. Right now she’s working with a program that prepares eighth graders for standard exams. When she worked in Arizona she helped out there too.
Supporting the country
One of the best things about working for Raytheon, Lewis believes, is the work the company does. “We are supporting the warfighters and the country. It makes me glad to be here,” she says.
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