Robert R. (Bob) Featheringham

Systems Engineer/Manager & Proposal Crafter

**** ****** **** ******

Vero Beach, FL 32967

732-***-****

ac7kyc@r.postjobfree.com

Summary

A key lesson Mr. Featheringham learned from 40+ years’ experience in the defense electronics and IT industries is that many seemingly intractable problems yield to the sustained application of systems engineering/management methodologies. Employing those methodologies and tools, he creates innovative solutions to complex technical problems. Also, finding that proposals stimulate some of the most creative systems engineering thinking extant, his engineering practice currently specializes in crafting responsive compelling proposals.

Clearance Secret (renewal in process)

Experience

2000-Present Self-Employed Freelance Consultant

After relocating to Florida in late 2017, Mr. Featheringham established Proposal Crafters, LLC, to assist companies seeking to increase their proposal win rates by applying systems engineering methodologies to business capture and proposal development efforts.

Earlier, Mr. Featheringham and his wife/business partner Connie Caputo established Two Feathers Consulting as a NJ-based, women-owned, small business. Since 2000 they provided industrial representation, business development, capture management, systems management, systems engineering, and proposal writing services to companies seeking Army contracting opportunities. For Army IT Enterprise Solutions (ITES) performance-based IT services contracts, he crafted the engineering design approach for the winning $500M proposal. Later, his efforts led to winning two $500M Communications-Electronics IDIQ Army R&D contracts at Aberdeen Proving Ground. As the proposal engineer, he was responsible for the systems engineering design, configuration management, and integration for six engineering sample problems.

1997-1999 Telos Corporation, Director, New Business Development

Mr. Featheringham performed the full spectrum of business development tasks, from pipeline creation, including early opportunity identification and qualification, through capture management and proposal development. In addition to positioning Telos on teams pursuing billion-dollar IT programs, he developed and captured several information security contracts and Army technology demonstration task orders for engineering and integrating Telos’ Virtual Database technology into the solution design.

1967-1997 Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC), later CSRA, and now GD (and predecessor companies)

In 1967, Mr. Featheringham joined Auerbach Corp., and, through a series of mergers and acquisitions over the next 30 years, held increasingly responsible systems engineering and corporate management positions in successor corporations: Calculon, ORI, Atlantic Research Corporation’s Professional Services Group (PSG), and CSC. In that time built his organization from a single $175K contract to a $30M diversified engineering organization, thereby realizing an annual average increase of 24%.

In 1994 after CSC acquired PSG, he was assigned to CSC’s System Engineering Division, and there he operated a technology-based professional services unit, employing 300 professionals, providing wide-ranging systems engineering/integration and testing services to diverse clients. Significantly, as Lead Executive and Capture Manager, he won a $160M contract to provide systems engineering, modeling and simulation, test engineering, and range support services to the Army Electronic Proving Ground (EPG) at Ft. Huachuca, AZ. In his final CSC assignment, he received accolades from EPG for personally leading the on-site systems management team that successfully transitioned the EPG contract to full performance six months ahead of schedule.

Before CSC’s acquisition of ARC/PSG, Mr. Featheringham was Vice President and General Manager of a business unit that engineered, tested, and supported ground-based command, control, communications, computer (C4), IT, and automated logistic systems for Army and Marine Corps customers. He led and directed day-to-day operations typically embracing 15 contracts and 75 concurrent task orders, while supervising activities of 250 professionals at 20 sites, including from time-to-time, the Middle East and the UK. Primarily, this included providing systems engineering/integration services to the Army and Marine Corps PMs that were developing then state-of-the art C4 systems. With P&L responsibility and concomitant operations and business development authority, he grew contract revenue from $15M to $25M, including a multi-year $50M contract at EPG, for which he served as Lead Executive and Capture/Proposal Manager. Later, he led an on-site task force that administratively combined two separate EPG contracts into one, providing $1M annual cost avoidance to the Army and significant award fees in recognition of the effort to PSG.

After the purchase of Auerbach by its managers and subsequently renaming the company Calculon (which itself was later purchase by Operations Research Inc., or ORI), Mr. Featheringham was promoted to Division Vice President; his Division provided systems engineering, technical analysis and Information Technology (IT) services to Army Signal and Marine Corps communications customers. At Calculon, he grew a newly formed division from one contract to a $4M geographically dispersed organization, including Ft. Monmouth, NJ; Ft. McClellan, AL; Ft. Gordon, GA; and Ft. Huachuca. After Caculon was purchased, at the new company ORI/Calculon, he was the strategist and capture manager for a proposal that won two (White and Black) Marine Corps IDIQ delivery order contracts at Quantico. By the time ORI was acquired by ARC/PSG, he had grown the division to $12M, while concurrently serving as his Division’s Chief Systems Engineer.

At Auerbach he served in positions with increasing responsibility, from systems engineer, project manager, to program manager. This included early applications of data processing to the tactical Army. Later, he conceived the strategy for, and managed the capture effort that won a multi-year engineering services contract to the USMC Joint Unit Level Switch program office, supporting advanced and full-scale development of tri-service digital, secure telephone and packet switching equipment. Subsequently, he managed the ten-year contractual effort in addition to serving as the project’s Chief Systems Engineer.

1960-1967 Early Positions

Mr. Featheringham served in engineering, project management, and capture positions on Navy Fleet Ballistic Missile (SSB(N)) systems engineering and software documentation efforts as well as reliability engineering projects. Later, he served in project management and successful proposal development capacities directed toward the application of computer technology to Army tactical data and messaging systems.

Professional Memberships

Mr. Featheringham stays current with the defense-electronics community through participation in many professional organizations, including:

Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE), Life Senior Member

Association of US Army (AUSA)

Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association (AFCEA)

Education

MS Technology Management, University of Maryland

BS Electronic Engineering, mathematics option, Indiana Institute of Technology

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