Large defense contractors can bring on dozens of fellows a year through dedicated military recruiting teams, but HX5, a company of roughly 1,000 employees, has taken a different approach under CEO Margarita Howard two fellows annually, eight total since 2021, through the Hiring Our Heroes Corporate Fellowship Program.
That measured pace, Howard has suggested, lets HX5 properly integrate each fellow rather than treating the fellowship as a numbers exercise driven by hiring quotas. Her own background as a service-disabled Air Force veteran gives her a personal reason to keep the commitment steady rather than letting it slide during busy periods of the year.
A Program Built for Transition
The fellowship itself traces back to 2015, when the Department of Defense launched it as a SkillBridge initiative allowing active-duty members to spend their final 180 days of service gaining civilian work experience. Fellows split their time between four days of hands-on placement and one day of professional development weekly, all while still drawing military pay and benefits throughout.
More than 500 fellows have graduated from the broader program since it began, with an 80 percent hire rate and starting salaries averaging around $70,000. Companies involved range from large players like Lockheed Martin and Booz Allen Hamilton to tech firms such as Microsoft and Amazon, along with many smaller employers.
HX5’s footprint across more than 20 states and 70 government locations, largely supporting Department of Defense and NASA missions, means fellows often step into work that closely tracks what they did while in uniform. Margarita Howard has pointed to that overlap as a reason fellows tend to adjust quickly, since much of the required clearance familiarity and operational mindset already exists before they even arrive.
Rather than chasing scale, HX5’s fellowship history under Howard shows how a smaller veteran-owned contractor can still build a lasting, if modest, pipeline for transitioning service members over time. Refer to this article for related information.
Find more information about Margarita Howard on https://www.f6s.com/member/margarita-howard
