Government contracting demands precision, expertise, and an unwavering dedication to quality. Since 2004, HX5 has built its reputation on these principles while providing professional support services to federal agencies. With operations spanning 34 states and 90 government locations, the company has demonstrated that excellence in mission support isn’t just a goal but a fundamental operating standard.
The Foundation of Mission Success
For Margarita Howard, sole owner and CEO/president of HX5, excellence begins with understanding the critical nature of government missions. “Working side-by-side with civil servants and the military, supporting their respective missions is a privilege,” Howard says. “I love this business and the work that we do. I’m extremely proud of it.”
This appreciation for the significance of government work shapes how HX5 approaches its support services, which include research, development, testing, evaluation, hardware and software engineering, and mission operations support for agencies including NASA and the Department of Defense.
The company’s foundation is built on infrastructure investments that enable compliance with rigorous government standards. “Right from the beginning, we invested heavily upfront in purchasing and implementing a specialized accounting system developed for government service contracting firms,” Howard explains. “A system we knew the government was very familiar with and that would provide us the necessary accounting tools to pass government billing audits and gain government approval for use in the performance of our government contracts.”
Excellence Through Accountability and Documentation
Government contracting requires extensive documentation and adherence to strict regulatory frameworks. Howard emphasizes the importance of this aspect: “From working in the industry, we knew the importance of impeccable record keeping,” Howard points out. “Therefore, we’ve always ensured our finances, and all our records of everything we say we do must always be supported with the appropriate documentation and recorded accurately because, as a government contractor, all of our records are open to the government’s inspection and audits at any time.”
This meticulous approach extends to all aspects of business operations. “As a government contractor being paid with tax-payer dollars, it is the government’s job to audit every single area of what we do for them, from the labor department evaluating our human resources policies to the financials that we bill to the government for services being provided,” Howard continues. “Additionally, our security department goes through an annual security audit as well, making sure that we’re doing the proper security training and providing everything needed for the people that are cleared.”
Developing Specialized Talent for Government Programs
Excellence in supporting government missions depends heavily on having the right personnel. “We prefer to hire experienced individuals, so we look for people that have worked with, or supported, NASA or the Department of Defense, as this experience is always very helpful,” Howard notes. “Experience in their respective fields, while supporting these agencies’ respective programs and missions, is very different than experience gained from working in the commercial world.”
Finding qualified personnel presents significant challenges. Howard refers to particularly difficult positions as “purple unicorns” – candidates with rare combinations of technical expertise, security clearances, and specific experience. Despite these challenges, Howard takes pride in the excitement and significance of the work: “Sometimes when we visit our work sites, for example, a NASA lab, and you get suited up to go inside the various working clean rooms and labs and see first hand the work that’s being done, it’s always very exciting” Howard shares.
The company culture emphasizes personal responsibility and integrity. “Our guiding principle is to lead by example. We hold ourselves to the same high standards of performance, and integrity, and honesty that we would expect of our employees,” Howard emphasizes. “We try to remind them always that our customers have important missions, and we are trusting in them to help us support our customers. We always want to provide the best possible services at the highest levels.”
Through strategic investments in infrastructure, rigorous compliance practices, and specialized talent acquisition, Margarita Howard has built HX5 into a company committed to excellence in supporting critical government missions. This commitment remains the foundation of its continued growth in the federal contracting space.
