GovCon Wire sat down with QinetiQ U.S. President and CEO Shawn Purvis, a four-time Wash100 Award winner, to discuss the company’s remarkable transformation over the past three years, recent strategic hires and its expanding technology portfolio. Here’s what she told us in her Executive Spotlight interview:
GovCon Wire: You’ve led QinetiQ U.S. through significant transformation over the past three years. What have been the key drivers of this growth?
Shawn Purvis: Our transformation has been driven by our commitment to addressing evolving defense and national security challenges. We’re introducing new products and capabilities in direct response to customer needs and the changing global geopolitical landscape. We’ve expanded our portfolio by introducing target systems to the U.S. market and enhanced our capabilities to help support operational readiness and training, which is crucial given current global security dynamics.
A key part of this transformation has been our focus on delivering mission-led innovation across multiple domains. We’re seeing this approach bear fruit through significant contract wins, including a $170 million award from U.S. Customs and Border Protection for airborne detection and monitoring systems, and a $224 million Space Development Agency award for systems engineering and technical services supporting the Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture vision.
Equally important to our growth is our investment in our people and culture. In 2024, we launched THRIVE, a multi-year culture campaign centered on enriching the employee experience and developing transformational leaders. THRIVE serves as our unifying vision, connecting our mission, values and operations to create an environment where innovation and engagement flourish. By focusing on both mission success and employee empowerment, we’re building an organization that delivers exceptional value to our government partners while fostering a workplace where our people can excel and grow.
GCW: Could you tell us about QinetiQ’s strategic direction and how you’re positioning the company for future growth?
Purvis: We’ve refined our core capabilities to directly align with our customers’ most critical needs and emerging market opportunities. Our strategy centers on four key areas where we deliver distinctive value. In information advantage, we’re providing advanced cyber technologies, digital transformation solutions and intelligence analysis capabilities that help our customers maintain decision superiority. Our systems engineering and integration capability delivers sensor systems and persistent surveillance solutions that enhance situational awareness across domains. Within multi-domain autonomous systems, we provide aerial targets, uncrewed and robotic systems and autonomous management systems that enable realistic training and testing for evolving threats. Through our mission operations capability, we deliver specialized mission support, technical advisory services and advanced training and exercises that ensure operational success for our customers.
All of these capabilities are underpinned by our extensive legacy of engineering excellence and innovation. Our expertise in rapid prototyping, technical production and specialty mission products allows us to quickly transform ideas into fielded solutions. This engineering foundation, combined with our refined focus on these core capabilities, positions us strongly for continued growth in defense, intelligence and national security markets.
GCW: Could you highlight some of the innovative technologies where QinetiQ is seeing success?
Purvis: Our technology portfolio directly addresses current and emerging defense needs. Our Aerostat systems deliver persistent surveillance and communications capabilities vital for today’s multi-domain awareness requirements. These advanced systems provide consistent intelligence gathering at altitudes up to 15,000 feet, enabling real-time detection of air, ground and maritime threats, including Class I/II/III UAVs. The systems’ long-endurance operations and customizable payloads make them particularly effective for diverse military, homeland security and civilian applications where continuous surveillance is critical.
We’re also developing the ARES, or Augmented Reality Engagement System, Head-Up Display, which showcases our expertise in sensor integration. This system is physically and electronically configurable to accommodate multiple types of users, offering both bi-ocular and mono-ocular options for greater adaptability and improved situational awareness for the warfighter.
In our target systems area, we’ve recently secured the $95 million Aerial Target Systems 3 IDIQ contract with the U.S. Army. We’re manufacturing these systems in Massachusetts, bringing our proven target technology with a 97 percent mission success rate to U.S. markets. This program supports critical training and testing needs for U.S. forces, including the Army’s Threat Systems Management Office at Redstone Arsenal.
GCW: Looking ahead, what’s next for QinetiQ U.S.?
Purvis: Our expansion into Huntsville, Alabama marks a significant milestone in our growth strategy. This new presence strengthens our ability to support critical programs at Redstone Arsenal and positions us closer to key customers. The move also allows us to tap into Huntsville’s impressive talent pool in the aerospace and defense sectors.
Looking forward, we’re focused on continuing to deliver innovative solutions that address our customers’ most complex challenges. With our expanded leadership team, growing technology portfolio and strategic geographic presence, we’re well-positioned to support the warfighter with cutting-edge solutions across multi-domain autonomous systems, ISR, mission operations and data and digital solutions.
This is an exciting time for QinetiQ U.S. as we continue to grow and evolve. We’re committed to being at the forefront of defense and national security innovation while maintaining our focus on mission success and customer satisfaction.
