2021 HENAAC Awards

As Vice President of Manufacturing and Assembly at Pratt & Whitney, a division of Raytheon Technologies, Raquel Rivera is one of a small but ever-increasing number of Hispanic women who have excelled in executive positions in the aerospace industry.

Ms. Rivera is responsible for the final assembly, testing and delivery of large jet engines for both military and commercial customers. Her division generates over $10 billion dollars in revenue for Raytheon Technologies, and she oversees both the internal part manufacturing and the external supply chain.  This places her at the head of an operation of over 10,000 employees across 4 million square feet of high-tech manufacturing space at 20 manufacturing shops worldwide.

Interestingly, Ms. Rivera is not the first member of her family to work within the Raytheon family.  That distinction belongs to her single mother, Elsie, who found life-changing employment as an assembly line worker with Raytheon’s Patriot missile program after moving Raquel and her three brothers from Puerto Rico to Massachusetts in search of a better future. 

Raquel was inspired by her mother’s career to pursue mechanical engineering in college.  While at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, she landed a coveted undergraduate internship position with Pratt and Whitney, and after graduation she joined the company’s manufacturing engineering development program full time. 

Rising steadily through the ranks, Ms. Rivera became keenly aware of the dearth of female executives like herself in her industry, and she takes the responsibility of being a role model for aspiring women in STEM seriously. 

A respected community and industry leader, wife, and mother to four children, Ms. Rivera co-founded Pratt and Whitney’s Hispanic Employee Resource Group, serves as an Executive Sponsor of the University of Puerto Rico’s Hispanic Leadership Forum, and is on the board of Directors of the Middlesex County Chamber of Commerce.