There are growing job opportunities in the field of robotics because aerospace and defense contractors are turning to automation to help them ramp up production to meet increasing demand.
And veterans have the skills to meet that demand, according to Aerobotix, a Huntsville, Alabama company that specializes in the creation of cutting-edge automated robotic and measuring solutions for high-value, high-precision components, aircraft, and vehicles. Aerobotix has more than 130 robotic systems installed in the U.S. and abroad.
John Bohan, vice president of operations at Aerobotix, served for four years in the Army and has been with the company for 18 years. In his current role, Bohan is responsible for hiring new team members and realizes that veterans are a great fit for the robotics industry, he now often recruits via veteran services offices at colleges in his target markets.
“Veterans are a particularly good knowledge fit for robotics companies in the aerospace and defense industries, and already having military security clearance is an asset,” he said.
That’s how Bohan found Aerobotix process engineer and Navy veteran Paul Roper and field engineer Daniel Huerta, who’d retired from the Navy and Coast Guard after 20 years of active duty.
After leaving the Navy, Roper began studying for a business degree, but soon found that the skills he’d learned repairing ships and submarines while in the service were transferable to a career in robotics.
“A lot of this job isn’t just computer stuff,” he said. “It’s how to turn a wrench, right? It’s how to fix things on the fly and make them work.”
Robotics isn’t all electronics, Roper stressed.
“There’s a lot of logistics and stuff that goes into it as well,” he said.
Military veterans with logistical and leadership expertise can bring their skills to the table when pursuing a career in robotics, Roper explained.
“It’s not simply program a robot,” he said. “There’s a lot that goes into it.”
Like Roper, Huerta joined Aerobotix in his early 40s with, he says, “zero experience” in robotics.
“When me and Paul started this journey, we really did not know anything about robotics,” he said.
Huerta was able to quickly adapt the knowledge of tools, blueprints and mechanics that he’d acquired in the military to his new robotics career. Just like in the military, critical thinking plays a major role in a successful robotics, Huerta said.
“You get drawings you go by and sometimes you have to go outside the box to figure it out,” he said.
Roper said the robots he and Huerta work with are not replacing human jobs.
“The robots we work with are doing the jobs humans don’t want to do,” he said.
According to figures provided by Aerobotix, the intelligent automation market in aerospace and defense was worth $860.3 million in 2020, but is expected to grow to $41.85 billion by 2030.
To learn more about Aerobotix, click here.
Reach Julia LeDoux at Julia@connectingvets.com.