• 2020 Luminary Award Winner•

In his role as Engineering Program Manager for the Modeling and Simulation Software Task Order at Northrop Grumman’s Specialized Warfighter Development Contract Division, Jose Szabo is crucial to the success of an organization of more than 200 technical personnel developing four software product lines. 

Mr. Szabo actually performs three related, but separate, functions in his current position at the company’s Colorado Springs Advanced Missile Defense facilities:

·       Deputy Program Manager for the Task Order,

·       the Engineering Lead to all technical disciplines, and

·       as a Systems Engineering Functional Manager to thirteen direct reports.

Born in Quito to an Ecuadorian mother and a Hungarian political refugee father, Mr. Szabo was primarily raised by his grandmother in Ecuador until he was 10 before moving to New York City where his parents had emigrated.

His initial lack of English language skills helped inspire him to pursue a career in STEM.

A B.S. in Computer Science from Fordham University, earned through the help of an ROTC scholarship, landed him as spot as a commissioned officer in the U.S. Army for the subsequent four years and gave Mr. Szabo the great insight into logistics support of warfighters — insight that he employs to this day in his current role at Northrop Grumman.