Sue Hall is Quantum Space’s VP of Programs. She has more than 30 years of aerospace technical and management leadership in the space industry, and is a critical part of delivering on Quantum Space’s mission.
Sue began her career as U.S. Air Force officer, after graduating from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute with a Bachelor of Science in BioMedical Engineering with a concentration in electrical control systems. She started working in the Air Force Rocket Propulsion Laboratory, doing everything from hands-on fueling to managing contracts. There is no part of rocket and aerospace engineering that Sue hasn’t touched! She founded and co-owned Millennium Engineering and Integration in 1995 growing the engineering services company to just under 1000 employees when it was merged with QuantiTech Holdings LLC (later merged with Axient.) As part of the executive team, she served on the board of directors and worked with customers on defensive missile and spacecraft programs; including the Jet Propulsion Lab’s Deep Space One and the Missile Defense Agency’s Near Field InfraRed Experiment spacecraft. We are honored to have Sue on our leadership team, and asked her to share some of her thoughts on the industry and Quantum Space.
Q: What has changed in the industry since you started?
A: Lots has changed, and lots has stayed the same. There is still not enough diversity in the field. When I graduated from college, lots of women were going into STEM. Now I feel it’s dropping off. During and immediately following the Cold War era, the country was putting a lot of effort and resources into the space race. Now, the commercial space industry is fueling innovation. We thought then that private companies would never be developing new propulsion systems - that the government would lead there. First SpaceX, then lots of companies who followed their lead have. It’s an exciting time.
Q: How would you describe your leadership style?
A: I’m a bit of a mix, you might call it Participative/Catalyst. I would never ask someone to do something that I wouldn’t or haven’t done myself, like coming in on weekends or working the night shift. I want to make sure I’m giving the same effort I’m asking of others. I try to make decisions and clear the path so the team can move out and do great things.
Q: What advice would you give to young people trying to enter industry?
A: I would tell them to just go for it. I see the job descriptions now that ask for 10 years of experience. Well, I didn’t have that when I started and I got the job done. You don’t always fit in a box that employers require. My response to that is, “There’s a box? No one told me there was a box. I think I can do this, and I’m going to give it a try.” It worked for me and I was able to do incredible stuff.
Q: What do you think is holding the industry back?
A: Nothing: shy of our own imagination. We are at an amazing time in the space industry. The number of launches and the places we intend to go. We need to embrace problems and believe we can solve them. We can decide we’re going to find solutions to global problems, like climate change. We get a clearer vantage point from space to solve these problems. We need to embrace challenges and not be daunted. We are a space-faring world now, we have had continuous human occupation in space for over 22 years. We’ll be traveling into cislunar space, we have Artemis and other astronauts who will need a whole support system. The challenges are big, but we are equal to them.
Q: What do you look for when hiring for the next people to join your team at Quantum Space?
A: A good fit with the culture is critical. Our values here are important to us. We need people who can work in a team environment. It’s great if you have deep experience, but if you can’t work together, it won’t work. We have a collaborative culture, where everyone feels safe to share their opinion even if they are not the “expert in the room.” We work better together - and we need every person on the team to feel valued and able to contribute their best work to our shared mission.
If you’re interested in joining our team and working with fabulous people like Sue Hall, check out our Careers page here.