Willie Marker

Background

About Willie Marker

In that moment when the stakes are sky high and a challenge has emerged that has everyone else frantic and flustered, I do my best work. My soft-spoken but steady leadership allows me to step in, calm everyone down, analyze the situation, identify the problem, and delegate who needs to do what to get to the best solution. I’m the guy you want in the room. Even when there’s no crisis at all, but instead the need to work collaboratively to find a complete, quick-response engineering solution with efficiency and simplicity, you want me on your team. A mission-first attitude is paramount to any program’s success. Ensuring that the needs and desires of the end-user and maintainer of the product or systems should always be the first consideration of any engineering and integration team. Communication with individuals who understand what the real-world application of your product will be – consistently throughout the design and production process – is key to delivering something the competition cannot. This approach has been the cornerstone of my career. It’s the approach that took me from an aircraft maintenance technician working toward my FAA A&P certificate to engine shop manager to drafter to designer to mechanical engineer to systems engineer to systems architect, along the way gaining extensive experience in airborne Intelligence, Surveillance, Reconnaissance (ISR) platforms, aircraft modification, heavy structural repair, and aircraft interiors. It helped me become an excellent team leader and collaborator, able to resolve conflict and ensure all team members are heard and given an opportunity to meaningfully contribute. At the end of the day, no obstacle is too great to be overcome by a talented and dedicated team of driven individuals working toward a clearly defined goal in service of the larger purpose. My calm, systematic, methodical approach – undergirded by my core values of integrity, accountability, excellence, perseverance, and simplicity – translates into a win for the team, no matter the stakes.