FTI Defense reviews

Where do I start? Company was really exceptional in 2020 when I started. They were focused on the mission and the people with people being the most important. Management was amazing and the team was even better. We had an exceptional relationship with the customer with excellent CPAR scores. They made some management moves in 2022 which started the downward spiral. VP's were fired, new ones started and the company slowly got worse. People were put into positions they were never qualified to be in. The VP hired into the Space side of the company had zero Space experience prior. She did not care for the employees on any level. The President/CEO stepped away from the dual headed role into the CEO only role. He was actually doing a good job running the company. The new CEO came up from the VP of Finance. He had good intentions I believe, but the company significantly got worse at this point. People focused diminished to zero and the bottom dollar became the focus. They then hired a director in June 24 that was getting pushed out of his previous company. He came in and immediately wanted to shake things up to "make his mark". Well, that resulted in several people being laid off including the well liked Program Manager who had an exceptional relationship with the customer. He led a very authoritarian style of leadership asking for inputs, but in the end it was his way or nothing. He lacked all ability to manage or connect with the people. This was the last straw for many. So, in Colorado Springs, we were still holding our own. We saw two more directors hired and fired. We still maintained camaraderie and high morale even with contracts coming to an end. Culture was still high and people were working to keep things moving along. One of the major contracts came to an end in Aug 24. Several folks were laid off as a result. The company provided zero severance to those dedicated folks. People started leaving in droves at this point. Previously, turnover was extremely low. New director told everyone they were over paid and this would not continue to happen. Things were going to change. Mandated that everyone be in the office at least two days a week even though many were extremely effective at working from home. FTI boasts about the 4 C's (Core Values, Compassion, Commitment, and Charity). They do not live up to any of these except for charity. They should get back to the real focus. In conclusion, I would highly suggest staying away from FTI until things significantly change. The company is struggling financially and they managed to complete no less than 4 re-orgs in the 4ish years I worked there, This is not a sign of stability but of high volatility. Pay is not worth the lack of people focus or the company that is only out for the bottom dollar.

The executive committee takes feedback as personal attacks on their egos. They seem to be incapable of calmly, thoughtfully considering alternative perspectives. Their gut reaction is to immediately shut others down. This organization struggles with distrust, which then makes blaming and punitive behavior a common practice, that then destroys psychological safety in the workplace. There was a firing of a small finance department without previously alerting those individuals of any performance issues prior to it occurring. There was also a firing of a key personnel to the Navy Market-- out of the blue— by the executive committee, to the complete shock and dismay of the FTI workforce at large. It was a remarkable misstep. Top-down communication is pretty bad. Leadership claims that FTI is “leading with its SBIR technology” but it seems to be mostly smoke and mirrors. Many people at FTI feel guilty engaging with customers about FTI advertised analytics solutions, as there is disparity between what is advertised as FTI capability and the actual capability that can be delivered during project execution.