Amber Brown is a principal systems engineer, as well as a risk and control account manager at Raytheon Space and Airborne Systems.
She has worn three hats since May 2019, after a short stint as a configuration management lead. She also held a similar position at L3 Technologies Aerospace Systems, which merged with Harris Corporation and was renamed L3Harris Technologies.
Prior, Brown spent more than 14 years at Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Company, holding various jobs such as project engineer and systems engineer.
Throughout most of her Lockheed career, Brown was raising her now 11-year old son—who already has dreams of becoming an engineer like mom—and her younger sister, who recently went off to join the Navy. Brown’s sister is training as a welder to help keep the Naval fleet afloat. Not an unusual path for women in the Brown household.
‘Becoming an Engineer’
Growing up in Texas, Brown recalls how curious she was. "I used to break things and put them back together just to see how they worked,” she said. When she learned household gadgets were off limits, Brown headed outdoors. "I didn't go outside to play though," she said with a chuckle. "I went outside to see what I could destroy."
By fifth grade, although Brown gravitated to what she thought then were not "girly" pursuits, she was struggling with math. One of her teachers took notice and made the time to give the young student a powerful life lesson.
"Math is not the same process for everybody," she remembers him saying. “You can take different approaches to get to the right answer.
With a few modifications here and there, Brown has applied that fundamental rule to tackling seemingly intractable problems throughout her academic and career journey.
Inspired by an older cousin, Brown chose to go to Prairie View A&M University, a public historically Black university. Initially, she took up computer engineering, but later opted for electrical engineering as major with a minor in psychology. In 2002, Brown graduated with a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering technology and joined Lockheed Martin as an electrical engineer.
‘Unwritten rules’
After more than a decade as a professional engineer in the defense industry, Brown says she's learned to be comfortable claiming a seat at the table, even though she's been reprimanded for being assertive.
"When you become assertive with a dominant male, they feel you have an issue or you're rude," she said. "I’m assertive. I always have been, but I use the right words, language, and tone to have difficult conversations."
'Difficult Conversations' is in fact the title of one of three industry-standard career development courses Brown recommends for young professionals. The others are 'Elephant in the room' and 'Culture of Accountability.'
"Women can be quite timid," added Brown. "If they don't know the answer they don't want to be seen as incompetent. But you've got be incompetent before you get to the right answer."
As a new engineering grad, Brown remembers a manager telling her it's okay to say I don't know, but I will find an answer and come back. "That's something that helped me as a junior engineer," Brown said.
‘My Greatest Challenge’
As a principal system engineer for Raytheon Space and Airborne System, Brown has worked as a multi-disciplined engineer and configuration management analyst with SAS in McKinney, Texas.
From 2005 to 2017, Brown was based in Fort Worth, Texas for the most part, where she worked in aeronautics operations for the Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Company. Other projects she was involved in were F-35 Configuration Management, F-16 Avionic System Requirements, and the F-16/F-35 Electrical System Integration/Harness & Interconnect.
She's received Six Sigma specialist training, is Green Belt certified, and earned an MBA from the College of Business at American Intercontinental University in 2007. She's also received recognition like the 2020 STEAM/STEM Committee Lead Raytheon Women’s Network award, the 2019 North Texas Director Raytheon Women’s Network award, and was the 2016 Lockheed Martin nominee for the Women of Color in STEM Corporate Responsibility Award.
“When I was elected diversity and inclusion last year, management came to me and said if you do this then we’ll see you as more of a people person than a technical person,” she said.
Drawing a line in the sand was challenging for Brown, the expectation that she had to choose between being an ‘HR type person or a technical subject matter expert (SME).
“You had to pick a side, but I thought why can’t we be both? Why can’t I love the people I work with, and also be a SME when it comes to designing harnesses and systems?
Brown still struggles with maintaining the balance, as she integrates her technical background with schedule and budgets.
Always focused on finding different ways to solve tough problems, she says that driving around Texas has given her perspective on what’s happening outside the world of work.
"Social media has made us more aware of what people are feeling," Brown told Women of Color magazine in July. "The Coronavirus, George Floyd's death, and all the other issues. Sometimes, we overlook things because they are not being shown. They're not visible. But now we can act for everyone in society. I believe awareness is the first step to making change and making the world a better place," she said.
