He’s Off to Lockheed Martin

Unlike many soon-to-be graduates across the country who are still searching for their first job, LVC computer science major Doug Keeney ’18 knows exactly where he’s headed. In fact, he’s had a full-time job nailed down since he started his senior year. Keeney will be working as an associate software engineer for Lockheed Martin, the world’s largest defense contractor, on a team fulfilling a contract for the United States Air Force.

Connections from his LVC professor led to a summer internship at Lockheed Martin that got his foot in the door.

“My exact roles haven't even been fully briefed to me yet, but I imagine it will be similar to my summer internship duties—testing, documenting, and implementing code and algorithms to start,” said Keeney. 

During his summer internship at the King of Prussia branch of the company, Keeney worked on the Jupiter Program, a commercial program focused on providing LTE service via satellite. He performed prototyping, documented test emulations, and provided ad hoc lab support. 

“My prototyping eventually turned into actual code for the human machine interface needed for the human input,” he said. “That was the project I became most proud of and the one that I made the biggest impact to my team.”

Between his internship and the start of his new position, Keeney continues to work for Lockheed Martin through a reading program that includes training and studying for his full-time position. He’s learning about being an effective leader and team builder—skills he sees as invaluable.

“The leadership program sends you to graduate school while putting you into nine-month rotations on different parts of the company to prep you for either management and/or engineering team leadership,” he said. 

“Getting involved in the business side a bit is something that strongly interests me, and I believe it's a skill I can offer, since I have a minor in economics. This would work well as the business and engineering areas have to work together on the contracts, and somebody who can do both is valued a lot there.” 

Keeney’s largest takeaways from this experience extend beyond his field of study. He said he improved his communication, technical writing, and analytical skills.

“The liberal arts focus at LVC prepared me most for this experience,” Keeney said. “Being able to think from a micro and macro scale was important when working such big projects, along with being able to communicate with others via writing and presentations to superiors.”