Engineering Career Chat with 2024 BEYA Winner Chip Jones

Gilbert "Chip" Jones, one of this year's Black Engineer of the Year Legacy Award winners, has rocketed up the engineering ranks, first at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and now at Northrop Grumman, where he is now a senior staff engineer systems architect.

He collected five degrees along the way, including a Master's of Aerospace Engineering from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University and a Ph.D. in Management from University of Maryland Global Campus.

This rapid ascent suggested that Dr. Jones might have learned some things along the way worth sharing with other engineers, so we chatted with him about his career.

Q: What were your feelings about winning the Black Engineer of the Year Legacy Award for 2024?

Chip Jones: It was a blessing. First, I wasn't sure I was going to get selected, this first go-round, and just it was a surreal experience up there.

I met a lot of great people, spoke on a panel, and was able to share some of my experience and knowledge there. And it was just a great experience all around.

In terms of what got me there? The first thing is people, a lot of networking, people around me who have helped me over the years and continue to help me.

The second thing is; hard work. Over the years, I’ve gotten several degrees, including a doctorate. Five, now, and I don't plan on going for any more. But you never stop learning. There's always something new to learn, always some place to get better, somewhere I can better myself.

Related:Engineers Honored in the BEYA Program

The third thing is family, and not necessarily in that order. I had great parents growing up and they always pushed me to be the best I can be. Certainly, I would not be where I am without my parents, and my younger brother, and the rest of my family.

Q: What put you on the path to an engineering career?

Chip Jones: In grade school, I always enjoyed math and science the most. Engineering was a great way to marry the two together. I especially enjoyed physics in high school. Another part of that is my mother was a fire protection engineer. She graduated from University of Maryland, College Park. I graduated from the Civil Engineering program at College Park, and we actually had the same fluids professor about 25 years apart! He was good! He was tough but fair.

Q: What was your experience in school?

Chip Jones: My degree was in civil engineering. I went to school full time after that my master's program. And then started my doctorate in 2014 and started working full time in 2015 as a quality assurance engineer for a satellite ground system, which has nothing to do with civil engineering. Looking back, I couldn't have seen this trend coming, but I don't regret it at all.

Related:General Motors’ Gerald Johnson is Black Engineer of the Year

Q: Why did you choose Civil Engineering for undergrad?

Chip Jones: I liked structures, building, designing, to go into designing construction.

Q: How did you switch to Aerospace Engineering?

Chip Jones: I was throwing out job applications and became a quality assurance at Raytheon for the Joint Polar Satellite System (JPSS) and I stuck. It's a weather satellite constellation. GOES-R is the geostationary constellation NOAA controls, JPSS manages the polar-orbiting constellation and control.

Q: What accomplishment are you most proud of?

Chip Jones: Working on several great missions, being a part of those, like GOES-R. I also worked for Cygnus as part of Northrop Grumman, and worked part of two missions that sent supplies to the International Space Station. It was great to be a part of that.

Q: Do you have advice for aspiring engineers?

Chip Jones: Well, the first thing I would say is, "Start early." This journey doesn't start when you get in college. It starts before that. So what you want to do is, you want to do STEM starting out in grade school, right?

The second thing is: Be ready to work. There's no easy route to do. It takes dedication, grit, and hard work, a lot of long nights to get to where I am at this point. "It's been a lot of nights where I've said, "I don't really want do this," but if I actually stopped at any one of those points, I could have spent the rest of my life wondering, "What if?"

Related:The Story of John Stanley Ford, America's First Black Software Engineer

I'm glad to say that I stuck it out and don't regret a moment of all that work. So: hard work and networking, all the opportunities you can, to network with people.

Q: How has networking benefited you?

Chip Jones: I worked at OneWeb, which was going under in March 2020, right, I was part of that layoff, and my immediate supervisor was also part of those layoffs. As we were driving that day, we drove in to the office for them to tell us that we were all laid off, we were standing in the garage. We were wishing each other well, and he said, “I know a few folks at Northrop Grumman.” This was March 27.

A few weeks later, I get a call from a hiring manager who wants to interview me for the ground systems engineering position, and by May 4, I was starting. So had I not made that connection and done a good job it would have been a lot different. So: networking. Hard work. Start early and perform. Do a good job.

Q: What’s next?

Chip Jones: I’m working on a strike aircraft training system. Can't say too much about that. Right now, I’m a senior engineer, but looking to become an executive one day, and continuing to learn as much as I can to lead the people well that I’m responsible for tasking, and continue to grow my skills.

Two of my degrees are management degrees, and one of them included my intelligence management degree. My first master's was 60 percent Intelligence and National Security Studies and 40 percent management leadership and financial support. My doctorate was in management. So that was a lot of leadership and management.

Q: Would you rather be an engineer or a manager?

Chip Jones: My engineering experience sets me up well for that as a future manager and leader. Hopefully, my goal one day, is to be a C-suite executive, because I like leading folks, and I think it'd be a great opportunity to be at that level and help grow the company. I don't think I’d struggle with that because of my experience.

Q: Would you miss the technical work?

Chip Jones: To some degree. I think I’d get over it pretty quickly.

Q: Maybe what you like about engineering is problem-solving more than nuts and bolts.

Chip Jones: Absolutely. Nuts and bolts are fun sometimes, but the problem is what I like.