Transitioning out of the military rarely happens overnight, and the Department of Defense’s SkillBridge initiative was built to soften that shift. HX5 taps into this framework through the Hiring Our Heroes Corporate Fellowship Program, giving active duty service members a structured runway into civilian work before their final discharge date. The program runs 12 weeks.… Read more

Every startup faces decisions about where limited capital should go first. Margarita Howard made hers early, and the choice she made in 2004 still shapes how HX5 operates today. Margarita Howard has since become an example other founders in the industry point to when discussing early-stage priorities. Rather than leasing prominent office space or investing… Read more

Defense contractors are running into a hiring puzzle that didn’t exist a decade ago. Generation Z is entering the workforce with different expectations around growth, technology, and purpose, and firms that support the Pentagon and NASA cannot simply out-pay commercial tech companies for the same talent. Margarita Howard, sole owner, CEO, and president of HX5,… Read more

A transitioning Air Force engineer might spend a career working on systems that look strikingly similar once they join HX5, just approached now from the contractor side of the table rather than the uniformed one. CEO Margarita Howard has pointed to this kind of continuity as a central reason veterans fit well into HX5’s work… Read more

Generation Z has a reputation for holding employers to high standards. Research from Deloitte found that 77% of Gen Z respondents consider it essential to work for a company whose values align with their own. For defense contractors, that finding creates both a problem and an opportunity. Margarita Howard, sole owner, CEO, and president of… Read more

Federal contracting is an industry where the paperwork is as important as the product. Billing systems, audit trails, compliance documentation these are not administrative afterthoughts. They are the foundation that determines whether a contractor can even compete for certain types of work. Margarita Howard understood that when she founded HX5, and she built accordingly. An… Read more