Pros
R&D environment with many small projects and ‘all hands on deck’ culture is good for gaining exposure to new technologies, building up a diverse skillset and learning about the business side of R&D. Opportunities for self-direction and ownership for enthusiastic proposal writers. Excellent opportunity for early career engineers/scientists hoping to build up a technical foundation.
Cons
As the company’s bread & butter, R&D proposal wins are King, and technical excellence is valued only insofar as it enables these wins. Funding opportunities are typically small and fragmented, rarely offering room for achieving the critical mass needed to truly create something of lasting value/impact. Good for research and learning, poor for developing products.
The company has made unusual decisions regarding the administration of its IT infrastructure in a bid to mimic their expectation of how larger defense primes would operate, sacrificing development speed and thereby one of the few advantages a small business has over larger established players. The company has become highly adverse to taking on risk, and which is a major hurdle to growth.